February jobs report: U.S. adds a whopping 273K jobs, unemployment rate unexpectedly falls to 3.5%

The February jobs report reflected much better than expected job gains and an unemployment rate back at a 50-year low, before the coronavirus outbreak escalated and threatened to weigh on economic activity.

The Labor Department released its February jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday. Here were the main results from the report, compared to consensus expectations compiled by Bloomberg:

Change in non-farm payrolls: +273,000 vs. +175,000 expected and 273,000 in January

Unemployment rate: 3.5% vs. 3.6% expected and 3.6% in January

Avg. hourly earnings, month on month: +0.3% vs. +0.3% expected and +0.2% in January

Avg. hourly earnings, year on year: 3.0% vs. +3.0% expected and 3.1% in January

January’s job gains were upwardly revised to 273,000, from the 225,000 previously reported, and December’s non-farm payroll additions were upwardly revised by 37,000 to 184,000. This brought average job gains over the past three months up to 243,000, or above the average from 2019, when job growth averaged 178,000 per month.

The services sector again led the advance in job gains in February. Within this sector, health-care and social assistance added 56,500 payrolls, accelerating gains from January. Professional and business services also posted strong job gains, adding a net 41,000 positions.