February's Jobs Report Beats Expectations
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' February Jobs Report, non-farm payroll rose by 678,000, far surpassing the estimate from economists. Unemployment has dropped to 3.8% as we get ever closer to regaining the losses suffered during the pandemic.
Employment Gains
Employment showed gains across almost all sectors, with Leisure and Hospitality leading the way with an increase of 179,000 jobs. The only two sections that did not change in February were information and government.
Leisure and Hospitality
All industries in this section show growth as the US continues to open back up following the latest variant of Covid. Food Services and Bars show the biggest increase with 124,000 jobs, and accommodations increased by 28,000. Even with this jump in employment, this sector is still down 9% from its pre-covid levels.
Professional and Business Services
The Professional and Business Services sector also produced impressive growth, with 95,000 jobs added this past month. Temporary Help Services led the way in this sector with 36,000 jobs, with Scientific Development Services pulling up the rear with just 8,000 jobs added. This sector is one of the few that has not only recovered but has gone beyond their pre-covid numbers. There are 596,000 more jobs in this sector than in February 2020, due to 240,000 jobs added in Temporary Health Services, 154,000 added in Computer Systems Design and related services, and 152,000 added in Management Consulting Services.
Health Care
Health Care employment rose by 64,000 in February. The biggest areas of growth in February were home health (20,000), physicians (15,000), and other health practitioner's offices (12,000). The Health Care field is still down 1.9% from its level in February 2020.
Construction
In February, growth was seen again after little change was recorded in January's report, with 60,000 new jobs added. Job gains were noticed in both residential and commercial sides of the industry. This industry is close to its pre-pandemic levels, just 11,000 jobs lower than February 2020.
Transportation and Warehousing
This sector has more than recovered from any hits during Covid-19, with the largest gains compared to pre-covid levels in the areas of warehousing and storage (420,000) and couriers and messengers (240,000). Today, it has 584,000 more jobs than were shown in February 2020. February saw more growth in this sector with an increase of 48,000 jobs.
Other Sectors
February showed gain in several other sectors including Retail Trade(+37,000), Manufacturing (+36,000), Financial (+16,000), Social Assistance (+31,000), Wholesale Trade (+18,000) and even Mining (+9,000). The only areas that showed little to no change were information and government sectors.
Unemployment
Unemployment is defined as people who do not currently have a position but are actively looing for work and those who are experiencing temporary layoffs.
We have seen great improvement in the number of unemployed over the last twelve months. February saw unemployment fall to 3.8%, with the total number of unemployed at 6.3 million. We have not yet fallen to the employment levels seen in February 2020, 3.5% and 5.7 million people, respectively.
The greatest areas of improvement in February were seen for adult men, Hispanics, and jobless people who had been out of work less than five weeks. There was little to no change in February for the long-term unemployed, women, and other minorities.
While the labor force participation rate of 62.3% changed little in February, the employment-population ratio edged up to 59.2%. Both statistics remain below their pre-covid levels, 63.4% and 61.2%, respectively. The number of people not in the labor force but who want a job declined by 349,000; at the same time, the number of discouraged workers changed little and stands at 391,000.
Wages and Hours
Overall wages, on average, rose just 1 cent in the last month and currently sit at $31.58 per hour. Year over Year wages, on average, have risen 5.1%. Those who hold non-supervisory, or production positions saw a greater gain than average, with a growth of 8 cents to $26.94 per hour.
The average workweek rose to 34.7 hours in February, with those in Manufacturing seeing above average increases to 40.7 hours. Overtime rose to 3.6 hours. Those who hold non-supervisory, or production positions rose to 34.1 hours.
Conclusion
Year over year, we have made great improvements toward returning to the pre-covid levels of employment. While many areas still show huge gaps in reaching their pre-pandemic levels, several industries surpassed this benchmark. While the future is never certain, especially in these times, if improvement continues, we could achieve our pre-pandemic employment levels before the end of this year.
