Economy adds 227K jobs, jobless rate unchanged
WASHINGTON - U.S. employers added 227,000 jobs in February to complete three of the best months of hiring since the recession began. The unemployment rate was unchanged, largely because more people streamed into the work force.
The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 percent last month, the lowest in three years.
And hiring in January and December was better than first thought. The government revised those figures to show 61,000 an additional jobs.
The economy has now generated an average of 245,000 jobs in the past three months. The only stretch better since the recession began was in early 2010.
February jobs: Another robust report
That bodes well for President Barack Obama's re-election chances, although he's still likely to face the highest unemployment rate of any post-war president.
Stock futures rose slightly after the report was released. Dow Jones industrial average futures, which were up 10 points before the report, added 10 points when it came out. Standard & Poor's 500 futures were up one point before the report and tacked on two.
Last month's hiring was broad-based and in both high-paying and lower-paying industries. Manufacturing, mining, and professional services, such as accounting, all added jobs.
Governments at all levels cut only 6,000 jobs in February and 1,000 in January, after a revision. That's a welcome change from the heavy layoffs by cash-strapped states and cities over the past two years. Last year alone they cut an average of 22,000 jobs per month.
Nearly a half-million people began looking for work last month, and most found jobs, the report said. That's a sign of growing optimism in the job market, as many people who had given up on looking for work came off the sidelines to search for jobs.
That also counters a troubling trend: A key reason why the unemployment rate has dropped since last year is that many out-of-work people have stopped looking for work. Only people without jobs who are actively seeking one are counted as unemployed.
A sustained rise in the number of people looking for jobs is a good sign, even if the unemployment rate doesn't change.
Friday's report comes as a host of data points to an improving economy and job market. Weekly applications for unemployment benefits have fallen about 14 percent in six months. Though they ticked up last week, average applications remain near a four-year low.
On Wednesday, payroll provider ADP said businesses added 216,000 employees last month, up from January's total. The ADP report doesn't include governments, which have been cutting jobs.
And service companies, which employ most Americans, are expanding at a faster pace, according to a private survey released this week. A gauge of employment shows that service firms are still hiring, particularly in the mining, educational services, and transportation and warehousing industries.
The service sector includes everything from restaurants and hotels to health care firms and financial service companies.
Some companies must hire because they can't squeeze more output from their current staffs. Last year, worker productivity rose at its slowest pace in nearly 25 years. That means companies will likely have to add staff to meet growing demand.
Other figures point to the same conclusion. The average work week was unchanged at 34.5 hours. That's close to the pre-recession total and suggests that companies will have to hire more workers as business improves, rather than adding more hours.
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When will all of the 1000 plus billionaires and fee charging banks/financial services companies start spreading the wealth and creating jobs, like the Republican and some Democrats claim they do? Even former military persons, who made sacrifices for this country can't find a job and when they do, it most likely will pay minimum wages. This country needs to do better all the way around.
Yep, no matter what LIES and DECEPTIONS we continue to see spewed by the fox/rush parrots and their propagandists, saint ronnie TRIPLED our national debt and dubya DOUBLED our national debt, and today's budget deficits are much more attributable to bush's and the GOP's pernicious economic policies than anything that President Obama has done!
We will never dig out of the bush hole until we can get all Americans back to work, and this is exactly what appears to be happening over the past 2 years of private-sector job creation.
You fox/rush parrots can spin it anyway you would like, but my BLS link that clearly shows job creation and job losses over the past decade, is an eye-opener to see how bad it got during bushworld, the huge hole we've had to dig out of during the past 3 years, and good job creation over the past 2 years despite all the republican obstructionism.
Please take a look at both the BLS graph and XLS chart here, before you come back and spew your venom and hatred on others:
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000001?output_view=net_1mth
Employers added 227,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday.
Why does good economic news for America just bring our the right-wing noise machine to spew more venom and hatred, instead of trying to understand that we need many more months of good steady economic news just like this?
If you're a banker, crime Does pay, especially with Goldman-Sachs Geithner in the President's ear. This President loves and protects bankers even more than the Republicans did, if that is possible. Our justice system is a laughingstock. Steal fifty bucks and go to jail. Steal fifty billion and get a raise.
When Lloyd Blankfein is marched off in irons, I'll vote for this President, not before.
Can you anti-American birthers, baggers and buffoons ever stay on topic, or is that what 'they' teach you in teabagging extremism 101?
The topic is clearly: "Economy adds 227K jobs, jobless rate unchanged," which proves we are seeing steady economic improvement with job creation over 24-straight-months after the bush/cheney Great Recession of 2007-2009.
Here, check out the job numbers from 2002 to 2012 to see how much better job creation is during the Obama tenure than during bushworld:
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000001?output_view=net_1mth
YOU LIE!
FACT is, FDR won re-election in 1936, during the Hoover Great Depression, when unemployment was 22%.
Quite similar today, after the bush neocons destroyed our economy with their moronic "supply side economic insanity," and handed us the bush/cheney Great Recession, Obama's economic policies have brought us back from the brink of the republican depression like back in the 1930's, when FDR brought America back from the dark days!
Why must you rabid republican teabagging extremists continue to 'try' to compare apples to kumquats, since NET JOB CREATION is completely different than the unemployment data.
NET JOB CREATION was an average of 245,000 per month over the past 3 months, which takes into account the loss of government jobs.
All in all -- the bushies created government jobs, yet the Obama economy has created private-sector jobs while making government smaller!
That's a fact that the rabid republicans continue to sweep under the carpet while spewing their endless fox/rush propaganda.
President Obama has been business-friendly, creating an environment that has allowed record profits of businesses and job creation!
Get over it you teabagging extremist losers!
Seriously, you need some new fox/rush propaganda, since there's millions of jobs to lose like during bushworld, when we watched 4 million manufacturing jobs disappear overseas!
FACT: In both 2010 and 2011, we saw the first increase in manufacturing jobs in America since 1997 -- something that bush and the republicans could not do even between their two recessions and a housing bubble!
The latest Obama Job Approval ratings are about 50% and CLIMBING, as the economy continues to steadily get better throughout 2012!
President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average.....2/16 - 3/7.......49.8 -- 46.6...........+3.2
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
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That's an AVERAGE of 49.8% approval among 5 different polls, with the only one negative is the fox/rasmussen poll at a minus 1.
You rabid republicans just don't like facts and live for fox SPIN!