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US adds 311,000 new jobs in February as unemployment rate stays low

By Hugh Fort in US business news, posted March 10, 2023

Around 311,000 jobs were created in the US in February, as the unemployment rate remains close to a historic low.

While tech giants continue to shed their staff in massive cuts, the number of jobs remained strong.

The 311,000 recorded was not as high as the 504,000 new jobs added in January, but far exceeded the 220,000 predicted by experts, according to The Guardian.

There were notable gains in the areas of leisure and hospitality, retail, government and healthcare.

105,000 new positions were created in leisure and hospitality and employment in retail went up by 50,000.

Government jobs rose by 46,000.

The number of jobs in transport and warehousing dropped.

The unemployment rate remains near to a historic low, but has slightly risen to 3.6 percent.

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The number of people out of work also rose to 5.9 million.

Pay also rose, with the average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by eight cents, or 0.2 percent, to $33.09.

Average hourly earnings for private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 13 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $28.42.

Speaking to CNBC, Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute, said: “It was a phenomenal report.

“This brings into question how we’re able to see that level of job growth despite some of the other rumblings in the economy. The reality is it shows there’s still a lot of pent-up demand for workers were companies have really struggled to staff appropriately.”

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