by Kevin Lessmiller
March 10 , 2023
Introduction:
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/us-empl ... rolls-on/(Courthouse News) — The U.S. economy gained 311,000 jobs in February, a sign the labor market has been unfazed by the government’s attempt to slow economic growth through higher interest rates.
While the increase is a drop from the revised 504,000 jobs added in January, payroll growth is continuing to beat expectations. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had predicted about 225,000 new jobs last month.
The unemployment rate, meanwhile, ticked up from a half-century low of 3.4% to 3.6%, according to a Labor Department report released Friday morning.
“The labor market continues to defy expectations as employers add jobs at a rapid pace and unemployment remains low,” wrote Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at career site Indeed. “Today’s report is chock full of data showing a labor market with high levels of demand for workers and historically low levels of joblessness.”
The jobs market has remained strong over the past year despite the Federal Reserve raising its benchmark interest rate eight times in a desperate bid to cool down the economy in the face of high inflation. The central bank is expected to hike rates again when it meets at the end of the month.
caltrek’s comment: If technologically created unemployment is a real problem, it sure seems to be taking a long ting to actually manifest itself. Perhaps it is more an issue of individual jobs being replaced by robots and automation and not so much a problem that affects global numbers, at least not yet. Perhaps offsets are more than compensating. Examples include efforts to bring jobs back home to lessen dependency on foreign countries, not to mention to help in creating domestic jobs. Also, government stimulus programs, especially under a Democratic administration. Unfortunately, this also includes military spending in response to the attempted invasion of the Ukraine and to the ongoing conflict there.