America’s payrolls smash through expectations

AFTER A COLD winter, America’s jobs market is regaining some warmth. In February payrolls in the world’s largest economy rose by a net 379,000 jobs, surpassing expectations of a rise below 200,000. The unemployment rate fell a touch, to 6.2%. Even at this pace, America would take another 25 months to reattain its pre-covid level of jobs. But the economic recovery is getting back on track.

After unemployment climbed to nearly 15% last spring, America’s labour market roared back to life in the summer and autumn. In June rate-setters at the Federal Reserve forecast that the unemployment rate at the end of 2020 would exceed 9%. In fact unemployment dropped below that level in August after four consecutive months of net job growth in excess of 1.5m. Unemployment fell so fast in part because many people returned to their old jobs, in part because companies such as Amazon went on a hiring binge and in part because of a boom in startups, as entrepreneurs looked to fill gaps in the market created by the pandemic.