Job Growth Stays Strong, but Unemployment Rate Creeps Higher – By Michael Rainey (The Fiscal Times) / March 9, 2024
Employers added 275,000 jobs in February, handily beating expectations as the labor market notched its 38th consecutive month of growth, the government reported Friday.
Previous months’ estimates were revised lower, though, with the tally for December and January cut by 167,000. Even so, the number of jobs in the U.S. economy has increased by more than 200,000 over each of the last three months, indicating that growth remains healthy, even if not quite as robust as previously thought.
At the same time, the unemployment rate crept higher last month, rising two-tenths of a percentage point to 3.9%. The increase was driven by a mix of job losses and the entry of more people into the labor market. An alternative measure of unemployment, known as U-6, which includes some part-time workers, also increased, rising a tenth of a point to 7.3%.
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