Hiring picks up by 379,000 jobs in February

Hiring gained steam in February as the nation added 379,000 jobs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. 

Unemployment showed little change, ticking downward to 6.2% compared to 6.3% in the previous month.

The change in total payroll employment for December was revised down by 79,000, from -227,000 to -306,000, however, while the change for January was revised up by 117,000, from  +49,000 to +166,000. 

With these revisions, employment in December and January combined was 38,000 higher than previously reported, the Bureau said.

February's biggest gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, with smaller gains in temporary help services, health care and social assistance, retail trade, and manufacturing. 

But construction employment fell by 61,000 in February, including declines in nonresidential specialty trade contractors (-37,000) and heavy and civil engineering construction (-21,000). The Bureau said that severe winter weather across much of the country may have held down employment in construction

Employment in the construction industry is 308,000 jobs below its level a year earlier.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, says additional hiring gains could soon be on the way.

"More jobs are very likely, due to the near certain passage of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package and from two million vaccinations per day," Yun said "Another 9.5 million jobs are needed to get us back to pre-pandemic conditions."

Retail gained 41,000 jobs in February, with the largest increases occurring in general merchandise stores (+14,000). After steep job losses in March and April of 2020, including a net loss of 2.4 million jobs over the two-month period, retail trade has added 2 million jobs since May 2020.

Manufacturing employment increased by 21,000 over the month, led by a gain in transportation equipment (+10,000). Employment in manufacturing is down by 561,000 over the year.

In February, average hourly earnings for all employees increased by 7 cents to $30.01. Average hourly earnings for private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees, at $25.19, changed little (+4 cents). 

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls declined by 0.3 hours to 34.6 hours in February. In manufacturing, the workweek declined by 0.2 hours to 40.2 hours, and overtime declined by 0.1 hour to 3.1 hours. 

The Bureau also reported that  22.7% percent of employed persons teleworked because of the pandemic, down from 23.2% in January. The data refers to employed persons who teleworked or worked at home for pay at some point in the last 4 weeks specifically because of the pandemic.

Looking ahead, Yun notes that that mortgage rates will likely trend higher in upcoming months because of some edging up in inflation pressure.

"The home-sales market will experience countervailing forces of the higher push from more jobs, but also the pullback of higher mortgage rates," Yun said. "We will have to wait to see which force will be stronger."

The complete Employment Situation Report for February 2021 is available here.