The U.S. economy did add more jobs than some economists had expected in February, but the unemployment rate still ticked up to 6.7 percent, the monthly jobs report from the Labor Department stated.
Employers added 175,000 more jobs, the report said, notes USA Today. Economists had predicted that only 157,000 jobs would be added, but businesses alone exceeded those expectations. Businesses added 162,000 jobs, while governments added 13,000.
February’s numbers were much better than December and January, when only 75,000 and 113,000 jobs were added, respectively. However, The New York Times notes that the Labor Department did revise January’s numbers up to 129,000.
Some economists have argued that the jobs reports from the past few months aren’t exactly indicative of the state of the economy due to the frigid temperatures. The Times reports that some suggest that March and April numbers should finally provide clean data.
Still, there was some bad news. The unemployment rate went from 6.6 percent to 6.7 percent. An average workweek dropped slightly from 34.3 hours to 34.2. The unemployment rate went up because the labor force grew by 264,000, which means that more people who are currently out of work are looking for jobs.
