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Economists predicted a slight uptick in the U.S. unemployment rate in February, but they got it wrong by a tick or two. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the unemployment rate dropped from 9 percent to 8.9 percent on the addition of 192,000 jobs in February. Healthcare added jobs, as per usual, adding 34,000 to a 12-month total of 260,000 new jobs. Construction added 33,000. Transportation and warehousing gained 22,000, half of them in truck transportation.
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Earlier this week, Automatic Data Processing Inc., which tracks private sector jobs, said the economy added 217,000 jobs in the month, matching the average gain in private sector jobs from December through January.
Some trends continued. Larger firms -- those with more than 500 workers -- lagged sharply behind medium-sized and smaller firms. Of the 217,000 jobs, the bulk of them -- 202,000 -- came from the service sector. Manufacturing jobs rose for the fifth consecutive month, adding 20,000 positions. Construction jobs declined in February by 9,000, ADP said.
In total, construction businesses have lost 2.13 million jobs since January 2007.
And then there are firms that rely on government contracts, and those firms are not particularly encouraged of late. Northrop Grumman Corp. said this week it would cut 500 jobs by the end of May at its Electronics Systems facilities in Linthicum, Md., due to "delays and uncertainties," in the business environment.
As the private sector gains strength, working for the government no longer evokes the phrase "set for life." State and local government jobs declined in February, the Labor department said. Since a peak in September 2008, local government jobs have dropped by 377,000.
For 192,000 people in February, circumstances brightened and none too soon. More than 8 million jobs have been lost since the economy turned sour three years ago and in step with that, inflation has been held in check. Signs point to an upswing in prices, however, with gasoline edging toward $3.50 per gallon nationally -- energy costs jumping 2.3 percent in the latest monthly report. Food prices gained 0.7 percent in the same report.
Some are looking uneasily at the most recent job cuts report, which showed a 32 percent increase in announced layoffs in February over January. But January's layoff announcements were something of an anomaly, the lowest on record for a January. Averaging out the first two months of the year puts job cuts 21 percent below January and February of 2010.
"It is too soon to say whether the increases in January and now February represent a trend. Certainly the specter of rising gas prices could impact employers' staffing decisions over the next six months," Linthicum Chief Executive Officer John Challenger of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In international markets Friday, the Nikkei 225 index in Japan rose 1.02 percent while the Shanghai composite index in China added 1.35 percent. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 1.24 percent while the Sensex in India was flat, off 0.02 percent.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index rose 1.2 percent.
In midday trading in Europe, the FTSE 100 index in Britain gained 0.46 percent while the DAX 30 in Germany rose 0.42 percent. The CAC 40 index in France was flat, up 0.02 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.23 percent.
