WASHINGTON - Despite bad weather effects, the U.S. February employment report continues to show improvement in the economy.
Weather-related weakness was seen in lower hours and earnings, and in some places in fewer persons on payroll (the Bureau of Labor Statistics says there were "too many unknowns" to quantify the effects) and March data will probably rebound.
February payrolls printed down a mere 36,000, as opposed to the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in prior major snow events, and January-December revisions totaled plus-35,000, so on net this was far better than feared. A bottom line is the labor market is turning up from last year's problems.
Private payrolls printed down 18,000 so there is not yet forward momentum in hiring. Local government education lost 24,100 jobs in probably a weather effect, and Federal ex-Postal Service printed up a mere 16,100. The latter suggests a larger Census hiring effect lies ahead. BLS said the February Census hiring totaled 15,000.
February payrolls also included construction at a 64,000 decrease, manufacturing at plus-1,000 in a second gain, retail at a 400 drop, information at an 18,000 decrease, finance at a 10,000 loss, and temp help at a 47,500 gain.
Average Hourly Earnings for all workers gained 0.1% for a 1.9% increase over the year.
Hours and earnings were probably hurt by storms and suggest slower production and incomes. These should quickly turn higher. The bottom line is that the labor market is on a three-month improvement that suggests the economy is doing better.
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