The U.S. economy added jobs back for a fourteenth straight month in February, with job growth continuing even in the already-tight labor market as new Omicron cases from earlier this year came down.
The Labor Department released its February jobs report Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
Non-farm payrolls: +678,000 vs. +423,000 expected, +467,000 in January
Unemployment rate: 3.8% vs. 3.9% expected, 4.0% in January
Average hourly earnings, month-over-month: 0.0% vs. 0.5% expected, 0.7% in January
Average hourly earnings, year-over-year: 5.1% vs. 5.8% expected, 5.7% in January
Last month, January's jobs report presented a significant upside surprise to investors, with more than 450,000 payrolls returning versus the 125,000 expected at the time. Job gains for December were also upwardly revised to total more than half a million.
"As the labor market grows tighter, we should expect some slowing in jobs growth," Alex Pelle, Mizuho Securities U.S. economist, wrote in a note ahead of Friday's release. "A greater proportion of hires will come from workers moving between firms than moving from unemployment or from outside the labor force."
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