U.S. Economy Adds 311,000 Jobs in February 

The U.S. economy added 311,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department said on Friday, continuing a hot hiring streak that has underpinned the country’s tight labor market. The unemployment rate edged up to 3.6%, still historically low. 

Employers continued to add workers to payrolls at a very quick pace, despite months of rising interest rates meant to cool that demand. 

The unemployment rate bumped up to 3.6% from 3.4%, as layoffs ticked up. The payrolls report showed that the economy added 504,000 jobs in January, 13,000 fewer than the originally reported figure. Meanwhile, gains were revised down in December: from 260,000 to 239,000. 

A run of government data from the beginning of the year pointed to evidence that the economy had picked up steam, with a strong bout of hiring and re-emerging inflation pressures. 

That’s despite aggressive moves from the Federal Reserve to slow the economy down in an effort to bring down inflation. Economists were looking to the February payrolls release as one report that could confirm whether that data was an anomaly. 

Fed chair Jerome Powell said last week the central bank could return to a larger size interest rate increase at its policy meeting later this month if other data pointed to re-heating economic activity. 

In February, average hourly earnings rose 0.2%. Over the year through February, hourly earnings are up 4.6%. Meanwhile, the share of people employed or searching for jobs (known as the labor force participation rate) bumped up to 62.5, compared to 62.4% in January.