The US economy added 678,000 jobs last month, well ahead of expectations as activity continued to recover.
The unemployment rate also fell slightly to 3.8%, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
Job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, healthcare and construction.
The number of new jobs created was well above analysts’ estimates of around 400,000 new jobs.
Firms also added more jobs in January than previously thought, according to revised figures released on Friday.
Average hourly earnings have risen 5.1% over the past 12 months, although that’s down from a 5.7% annual increase in January.
The largest job gains came from the leisure and hospitality industries, which added 179,000 new jobs, and bar and restaurant businesses, which filled 124,000 jobs.
Employment in professional and business services rose by 95,000 jobs in February.
However, the total number of jobs on the US payrolls is still 2.1 million below pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels.
Analysts predicted that the stronger-than-expected job market is increasing certainty that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates at its next meeting, something Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said earlier this week he was in favor of .
“It looks like rates will rise 0.25 basis points this month, Powell noted yesterday. The outlook is too uncertain for more than that,” said Neil Birrell, chief investment officer at Premier Miton Investors.
Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors, said a US rate hike was “almost baked in” to check rising inflation rates.
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