Unemployment rate in February 3.6%… Rebound from the lowest level in 54 years
Average hourly wages rose only 0.2% from the previous month
(New York = Yonhap Infomax) Correspondent Haram Lim = New employment in the non-agricultural sector in the US in February showed a larger-than-expected increase. However, the unemployment rate has rebounded slightly from its 54-year low.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced on the 10th (local time) that nonfarm payrolls increased by 311,000 in February this year.
February’s new hires exceeded the 225,000 increase expected by analysts polled by the Wall Street Journal.
Employment in January, which surprised the market with a surprise explosion, was revised down from an increase of 517,000 to an increase of 504,000. The figure for December last year was also revised down from 260,000 to 239,000.
The U.S. unemployment rate for February was 3.6%, up slightly from the previous month’s 3.4%, which was the lowest in 54 years.
The February unemployment rate also exceeded the WSJ’s forecast of 3.4%.
The labor force participation rate in February was 62.5%, up slightly from 62.4% the previous month.
The average hourly wage in February was $33.09, up $0.08 (0.24%) from the previous month. Average hourly wages increased by 4.62% year-on-year.
Hourly wage growth fell short of both the WSJ’s expectations of a 0.4% month-on-month increase and a 4.8% year-on-year increase.
Average weekly working hours in February were 34.5 hours, down 0.1 hour from the previous month.
The Labor Department said employment growth was strong in February in the leisure and hospitality, retail trade, government and healthcare sectors.
On the other hand, employment in the information, transport and inventory management sectors has declined, it said.
The leisure and hospitality sector added 105,000 jobs in February. This is higher than the average monthly increase of 91,000 over the previous six months.
Retail trade added 50,000 new jobs.
Government employment also increased by 46,000. This is higher than the average increase of 44,000 over the past six months.
Employment in professional and business services increased by 45,000. Management, science and technology consulting services added 12,000 new jobs. The professional and business sectors recorded an average increase of 35,000 jobs over the past six months.
Employment in the healthcare sector increased by 44,000. This is slightly below the average increase of 54,000 over the past six months.
Employment in the construction sector increased by 24,000, and social support also increased by 19,000.
On the other hand, the information sector lost 25,000 jobs. A decrease of 22,000 was also recorded in transportation and inventory management.
On the other hand, after the announcement of the employment data, the financial market showed relief.
Futures on the three major US stock indexes rose, while Treasury yields fell sharply. The dollar also weakened.
Although new non-farm payrolls in February exceeded expectations, investor sentiment improved as the unemployment rate rebounded from a half-century low and wage growth slowed compared to the previous month.
“Average wage growth has come out at a slower pace than Wall Street expected,” said Peter Bukbar of Bleeley Financial.
The interest rate futures market, which was concerned about the “big step” of the US Federal Reserve, is also in a mood of relief.
According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) FedWatch, the probability of the Fed raising interest rates by 0.5 percentage points at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in March is reflected in the Federal Funds (FF) interest rate futures market with a probability of less than 50%. . This is a significant decrease from the 68.3% level predicted the day before.
hrlim@yna.co.kr
hrlim@yna.co.kr
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This article was served at 23:21, 2 hours earlier on the Infomax financial information terminal.
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