US Employer Added 275,000 The Ministry of Labor announced on Friday that it would reduce workers’ February salary payments.
Unemployment rate increased to 3.9 %, up from 3.7% the previous month.
Economists had expected employment to rise by 200,000 people and the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 3.7%. The number of employees was 260,000, and the unemployment rate was 3.8%, at the top of the expected range.
The three-month moving average of employment was 265,000, indicating solid labor demand. The unemployment rate has been below 4% for more than two years, the highest level in 50 years.
Private sector employment rose by 223,000 people, significantly exceeding the 150,000 expected. This is higher than the downwardly revised estimate of 177,000 people in January, but lower than the initial forecast of 317,000 people in the first month of the year.
Manufacturing employment unexpectedly fell by 4,000 jobs, overturning expectations for an increase of 10,000 jobs.
The government reported last month that economic growth added 353,000 jobs in January, much more than expected. Figures for December and November were also revised upward. This has raised questions about the timing and extent of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.
The forecast for January was revised downward by 124,000 to 229,000. December’s figures were revised downward by 43,000 to a still very high 290,000. After these revisions, the number of employees in December and January combined decreased by 167,000 from the previous announcement.
Together, the new and revised estimates show that hiring accelerated in February, contrary to expectations that the job market would soften.
Manufacturing employment was initially reported to have increased by 23,000 jobs in January. With this revision, this number has been reduced to 8,000.
Many Wall Street economists had expected January’s jobs report to be revised downward. The response rate of businesses to the surveys used by the Labor Department to compile monthly employment statistics has fallen sharply in recent years, leading to significant data revisions and questions about the quality of the data.
Changes in shopping habits may have led to fluctuations in hiring timing around the holidays, disrupting seasonal adjustments. In a typical January, employers fire more workers than they hire, so employment growth is usually a product of seasonal adjustment. The Labor Department’s initial estimates had been that employment would have fallen by 2.6 million people before seasonal adjustments in January. Excluding 2021 and 2023, the decline in unadjusted numbers was the smallest since 2012.
Earlier this year, the consensus among economists and investors was that the Fed would cut interest rates as many as six times starting in March. After the Fed surprised many investors in January by indicating it was not ready to cut rates at its March meeting, many investors believed it would begin cutting rates at its next meeting in May.
The date for the first rate cut has been pushed back to June, and the expected number of rate cuts has been reduced to three, with data suggesting the economy continues to grow and add jobs.
The Fed typically lowers interest rates when it thinks the economy is deteriorating. Growth was very strong last year, especially in the second half, but economists believed that the rate hikes last year and the year before would be a big drag on growth and the labor market this year. The last time the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate was in July 2023.
Some Democratic politicians, progressive economists and Wall Street analysts say the Fed is risking an unnecessary recession by refraining from cutting rates. Federal Reserve officials, including Jerome Powell, have argued that the strength of the labor market and the broader economy warrants patience.
Recently, some analysts concluded that the Fed may not cut rates at all this year, raising the possibility that the Fed might raise rates instead. Breitbart Business Digest, a free daily newsletter from Breitbart News, doesn’t expect the Fed to cut interest rates this year.
In total, more than 2.4 million jobs were added in 2023, the lowest since the end of the pandemic and Joe Biden took office. However, compared to pre-pandemic levels, this is a high level of job growth, much of it driven by sectors still rebuilding from lockdowns and mass layoffs caused by the pandemic. The last time the economy added this many jobs in a year was 1999.
The labor force participation rate remained unchanged for the third consecutive month at 62.5%, and the labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 60.1%. These indicators have seen little or no change over the year, indicating a tight labor market is not drawing many workers from the sidelines of the economy.
The average hourly wage for all nonfarm civilian employees rose 5 cents to $34.57, following an 18 cent increase in January. This was a 0.1% increase, lower than Wall Street’s expectations for a 0.3% rise. Over the past year, average hourly wages have increased by 4.3%.
Average hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory employees in the private sector rose 7 cents, or 0.2%, to $29.71.
