The U.S. economy added 227,000 new jobs in February, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Labor, and the official unemployment rate remained at 8.3%.
The report follows a strong jobs report in January, when preliminary data indicated that 243,000 new jobs were created, and the unemployment rate fell from 8.5% to 8.3%.
In February, job gains were reported in professional and business services, manufacturing, and health care, while the construction and retail sectors shed jobs.
Although economists said the January unemployment rate decreased in part because more than a million people left the labor force, and labor force participation (63.7%) reached a 30-year low, weekly new claims for unemployment benefits have steadily declined. In recent weeks, the number of new unemployment claims fell to 351,000, the lowest level since March of 2008.
The reason the unemployment rate remained the same, even with a healthy number of new jobs, is that more people entered the workforce. The number of people in the workforce increased from 141.6 million in January to 142.1 million in February. Even if the economy continues to create jobs at a monthly pace of 245,000, the average for the past three months, the unemployment rate is unlikely to come down quickly because more job-seekers will be confident enough to re-enter the workforce.
The Department of Labor said more jobs were created than originally reported in December of 2011 and January of 2012. The December figure was bumped up slightly from 200,000 to 203,000, while January’s total rose from 243,000 to 284,000. In all of 2010 and 2011 combined, the economy created 3.9 million jobs.
