The nation’s healthcare sector led the nation in February in new employment growth, accounting for a substantial 67,000 new jobs.
But while the construction industry last month added substantially less new jobs at 23,000, the gains were still big and above an average monthly increase in the last year of around 18,000.
These are some of the findings of the latest monthly job figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing that, overall, the country’s employment rolls expanded by some 275,000 new jobs last month.
The strong healthcare numbers were in excess of the industry’s 58,000 average monthly gains going back to February of 2023, with both ambulatory care services and hospitals posting 28,000 jobs each.
Nursing and residential care facilities, meanwhile, were up by 11,000 new jobs.
The new construction jobs were seen in almost all sectors of the industry, with nonresidential construction up by 24,000 jobs, and heavy and civil engineering seeing an addition of 13,000 new jobs.
In statement Anirban Basu, chief economist with the American Builders and Contractors, he remarked: “Employment growth happened in a variety of nonresidential subsegments.”
Basu noted that the upward trend was particularly notable given such headwinds as “high project financing costs, elevated construction service delivery costs, and lingering recessionary fears.”
Only in one industry category, residential building, was there a decrease over January with new job growth marginally declining from 936,200 to 936,000.
In a statement from the White House, President Biden noted that along with the new job growth, “unemployment has been under 4% for the longest stretch in more than 50 years.”
The New York Times noted that employers last month were “again beating forecasters’ expectations. Gains were broad-based, cutting across most major industries.”
But the Financial Times cautioned that the new job gains were “overshadowed by the revised totals for January and December, when 167,000 fewer posts were created than previously thought.”
By Garry Boulard
