2021.03.0512:38:00UTC+00U.S. Employment Jumps Much More Than Expected In February

Reflecting a significant rebound in employment in the leisure and hospitality industry, the Labor Department released a report on Friday showing much stronger than expected U.S. job growth in the month of February.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 379,000 jobs in February after climbing by an upwardly revised 166,000 jobs in January.

Economists had expected employment to increase by 182,000 jobs compared to the uptick of 49,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

With the stronger than expected job growth, the unemployment rate unexpectedly edged down to 6.2 percent in February from 6.3 percent in January. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.