The federal government released the employment report for February at 8:30 this morning. The best word to describe it is "okay". The economy produced more jobs in February than it had for the previous two months when job creation dried up. The unemployment rate went up by 0.1% to 6.7%, however, since for the first time in a long time there were not large numbers of folks dropping out of the workforce. Even though the rate went up, it is a good sign that fewer people have just given up looking for work. With all the bad weather in February, it is hard to generalize from the results of the month. One would normally have expected industries like construction to take a hit, particularly since there was extreme weather in much of the country during the week when the employment surveys were taken. Instead, construction showed an increase in jobs. Results like that which are counter-intuitive may indicate that the survey was faulty or that there is a surprising strength in construction. Since there seems to be no other indication of a construction boom, I vote for a faulty survey which further undermines the importance of these latest numbers. I guess we have to wait for the next numbers in a month.
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