The U.S. economy added 678,000 new jobs in February. That was the most new jobs since July. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the economy to add 423,000 jobs in the month.
The official unemployment rate fell to 3.8%. The U-6 unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers who have stopped looking for work and workers with part time jobs who would like full time work ticked up slightly to 7.2%from 7.1% in January.
Average hours earnings, however, lagged with little change in February. Average hourly wages are now up 5.1% year over year. The lag in hourly wage growth is especially punishing as inflation continues to climb. Economists expect the next Thursday report on Consumer Price Index inflation will show an increase to 8% from 7.5% in January.
The labor force participation rate–the share of the population that is working or looking for work– ticked up to 62.3%. That’s still more than a percentage point lower than the participation rate before the Pandemic.
The strong jobs additions keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates by 25 basis points–or possibly more–at the central bank’s March 16 meeting.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell this morning to 1.70%, down 14 basis points on the day.
