WASHINGTON: US employers added 678,000 workers to their payrolls in February, driving the unemployment rate down to 3.8 percent and edging it closer to the pre-pandemic rate, the government reported Friday.
Job gains were widespread, according to the Labor Department, led by the 179,000 new jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector that was hard hit by Covid-19 shutdowns and restrictions.
The surge in hiring far surpassed the consensus forecast, although some economists were calling for a big increase as the world's largest economy gets back on track.
As the Omicron variant wave has faded and local authorities lift mask restrictions, bars and restaurants have reopened and Americans have begun to travel more.
Manufacturing and construction saw modest hiring gains, while professional services increased by 95,000, the report said.
US weekly jobless claims fall for second straight week; layoffs tumble in February
The government revised the results in the prior two months, for a combined increase of an additional 92,000 positions in December and January.
However, while the jobless rate fell from four percent in January, the share of people in the workforce barely changed.
The data show some groups are taking longer to reap the benefits of the recovery, with unemployment among Black workers at 6.6 percent, twice the rate for white Americans.
Millions of people are still working part time because they cannot find full-time jobs, and 1.2 million said they weren't able to look for work due to the pandemic.
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