|
Nonfarm payrolls surged 379,000 jobs last month after rising
166,000 in January, the Labor Department said on Friday. In
December, payrolls fell for the first time in eight months.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast February payrolls
increasing by 182,000 jobs.
The closely watched employment report also offered a reminder
that as the United States enters the second year of the
coronavirus pandemic the recovery remains excruciatingly slow,
with millions of Americans experiencing long spells of
joblessness and permanent unemployment.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday offered an
optimistic view of the labor market, but cautioned a return to
full employment this year was "highly unlikely."
Though the unemployment rate fell to 6.2% last month from 6.3%
in January, it continues to be understated by people
misclassifying themselves as being "employed but absent from
work."
The labor market has been slow to respond to the drop in daily
coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, which helped fuel a
boost in consumer spending in January that prompted economists
to sharply upgrade their gross domestic product growth estimates
for the first quarter.
Historically, employment lags GDP growth by about a quarter, but
the catching up started in February, a year after the economy
fell into recession at the start of the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak.
Though millions are unemployed, companies are struggling to find
workers, which is contributing to holding back job growth.
The pandemic is keeping some workers at home, reluctant to
accept or return to jobs that could expose them to the virus.
It has also disproportionately affected women who have been
forced to drop out of the labor force to look after children as
many schools remain closed for in-person learning. According to
Census Bureau data, around 10 million mothers living with their
own school-age children were not actively working in January,
1.4 million more than during the same month in 2020.
The job vacancies are mainly in the high-growth industries that
have fared well throughout the pandemic, such as information
technology, engineering, construction, customer support,
manufacturing, and accounting and finance.
The virus has greatly altered the economic landscape and many of
the services industry jobs lost will likely not return.
Given the difficulties of retraining, structural unemployment
could account for a bigger share of joblessness in the near
future. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Economists believe the labor market will gather steam in the
spring and through summer, with vaccinations increasing daily,
even though the pace of decline in COVID-19 infections has
flattened recently. A boost to hiring is also expected from
President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion recovery plan, which is
under consideration by Congress.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Chizu
Nomiyama)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
