Covid-Decimated Jobs Rebound Faster Than Expected
The U.S. economy added far more workers than expected in February, an early sign of a post-pandemic rebound.
A good sign.
Photographer: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images
During a webinar on Thursday with The Wall Street Journal, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made a not-so-subtle pivot at the end of the discussion when he was asked whether he would like to serve a second term at the helm of the central bank if it were offered (emphasis mine).
That story of American resilience turned out to be a near-perfect setup for the Labor Department’s February jobs report on Friday. It showed U.S. employers added 379,000 jobs last month, much higher than the 200,000 gain projected by economists in a Bloomberg survey, and January’s payroll additions were revised higher by 117,000 to 166,000. The unemployment rate fell to 6.2% and the labor force participation rate held steady. Especially after a handful of disappointing months, this data indicates that the worst economic damage from the pandemic is squarely in the past.