February jobs report expected to show hiring slowed while unemployment rate held steady

Yahoo Finance

February jobs report expected to show hiring slowed while unemployment rate held steady

Josh Schafer
Thu, March 7, 2024, 1:49 PM EST·3 min read

The February jobs report is set for release Friday morning and is expected to show some signs of cooling after a robust month of job gains shocked Wall Street last month.

The monthly report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, slated for release at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show nonfarm payrolls rose by 200,000 in February while the unemployment rate remained flat at 3.7% from the previous month, according to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg. In January, the US economy added 353,000 jobs, the highest monthly total in a year, while the unemployment rate unexpectedly remained flat at 3.7%.

Here are the key numbers Wall Street will be looking at compared to the previous month, according to data from Bloomberg:

Nonfarm payrolls: +200,000 vs. +353,000 previously

Unemployment rate: 3.7% vs. 3.7% previously

Average hourly earnings, month-on-month: +0.2% vs. +0.6% previously

Average hourly earnings, year-on-year: +4.3% vs. +4.5% previously

Average weekly hours worked: 34.3 vs. 34.1 previously

The report will serve as a test of whether January's surprise pickup in job gains was a one-month outlier or a true sign of underlying strength in the labor market. Wages will also be in focus after a surprise pickup in wage growth in January raised inflationary concerns.

{snip}