USA-Job creations above expectations in February – 03/04/2022 at 14:59

(With details, context, Evans commentary)

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in February, pushing the labor market closer to full employment, but rising geopolitical tensions could hurt business confidence and slow job growth in the months ahead.

The Labor Department reported 678,000 nonfarm payrolls added last month after 481,000 (revised from 467,000) in January.

The Reuters consensus for February gave a figure of 400,000 and estimates by economists and analysts ranged between 200,000 job cuts and 730,000 job creations.

The unemployment rate, calculated on the basis of a separate survey, fell to 3.8%, its lowest level since February 2020, after 4.0% in January.

The average hourly wage remained stable last month while the consensus was for an increase of 0.5% and on an annual basis its increase reached 5.1%, which marks a slowdown compared to 5.5% (revised ) the preceding month.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell this week called the labor market “extremely tight.”

In congressional hearings, he said he favored a 25 basis point interest rate hike from the Fed at the March 15-16 monetary policy meeting but would be prepared to act. more aggressively if inflation does not decline as quickly as expected.

Oil prices have soared above $100 a barrel since Russia launched an armed attack on Ukraine, prompting a flurry of Western sanctions against Moscow.

“There’s a lot of worrying news in the world right now, from the Russia-Ukraine conflict to runaway inflation,” said Sam Bullard, chief economist at Wells Fargo.

“But the U.S. jobs recovery remains a bright spot amid this carnage,” he added.

Charles Evans, the president of the Chicago Fed, estimated this Friday that this report on employment did not change anything with the position of Jerome Powell and that the labor market was from now on very solid.

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(Report Lucia Mutikani, French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault and Sophie Louet)

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