U.S. total employment in February rose by +379,000 jobs, according to the latest labor market report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Prior to the pandemic, a month-to-month jump in jobs of +379,000 would have been greeted with cheers. As Graph 1 shows, however, February’s gain was a rather small blip in the grand scheme of things.
Furthermore, it barely moved the needle with respect to the jobs recovery ratio as set out in Table 1. February’s jobs claw-back ratio (i.e., relative to the huge jobs losses that occurred from February to April of last year, when the coronavirus first struck) improved only slightly, to 53.8% from 52.1% the month prior.
The gap to achieve full employment remains formidable. February’s seasonally adjusted (SA) unemployment rate shrank by a miniscule amount, to 6.2% from 6.3% in January. A year earlier, in February 2020, it had been 3.5%, which brings up an important point.
