Hiring in the U.S. increased last month as the economy continued to recover from a labor market slowdown caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Payrolls grew by 678,000 in February, the Department of Labor said Friday, surpassing analysts’ forecasts of some 440,000 jobs. This is an increase of 200,000 over the previous month and the strongest month of recruitment since October last year. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8% as more workers found work. This is the lowest unemployment rate since February 2020, just before the pandemic hit the US
“There are very strong levels of worker demand,” Nick Bunker, head of research at the Index Hiring Lab, told CBS MoneyWatch. “This year could be a year in which, according to many metrics, we return to pre-pandemic levels.”
Earnings were broad-based. Entertainment and hospitality companies added about 180,000 jobs as restaurants and bars continued to reopen. Professional and business service companies added 95,000. Construction and healthcare companies added about 60,000 jobs each, while the transport and storage sector added about 50,000.
"February marked the tenth consecutive month with payroll gains in excess of $ 400,000, the longest period of such robust employment growth in 1939," Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report. research.
If recruitment continues at the same pace, the economy is on track to regain all the jobs it lost in 2020 this summer, just over two years after the pandemic began.
Wages are slowing down
Despite the increase in general recruitment, the February employment report showed some pockets of weakness. The employment-to-population ratio increased for most demographic groups, but decreased for black women. The unemployment rate for black men fell to 6.6%, more than double the unemployment rate for white men.
"Black men are going back to work, but they can't find work in large enough numbers," said Jane Oates, president of WorkingNation.
Wage growth slowed at an earlier rate this year, with average wages for non-managerial workers rising 6.5% year-on-year.
The moderation in wage growth is likely to be the result of measurement errors, as well as a growing supply of workers in the labor market, which allows employers more options to hire. However, economists predict that rising demand for consumer spending, as well as persistently high inflation, will put pressure on employers to continue to raise wages to retain workers.
"There are a lot of people in the job market right now who haven't experienced this kind of inflation in their lifetime. So companies will have to raise their wages to get those people back to work." he said. Giacomo Santangelo, economist at Monster.
Geopolitical uncertainty
Despite the sharp turnaround in the economy last year, economists warn that fierce inflation, rising oil prices and a change in monetary policy, exacerbated by the Ukrainian war, could soon slow recruitment.
The Federal Reserve is expected to start raising interest rates later this month as it seeks to curb inflation, which is at its level. highest level in 40 years.
The latest signs of strong employment growth are also based on data collected in mid-February, before the invasion of Russia on February 24. Ukraine. It is unclear how the conflict will affect U.S. hiring, but economists warn that rising oil prices and continued prices and disruptions in global supply chains could slow employment growth in the coming months.
This is a developing story. The Associated Press contributed to the information.
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