February Employment Recap: Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad data
There was not much that was good about jobs data from February. The headline number of payroll growth fell (marking the fourth contraction in the last seven prints), the unemployment rate rose to a strong 4.4%, the sector that helped keep payrolls afloat (private education and healthcare) saw the bottom fall out, and the labor force participation rate declined. There are some mitigating factors from February’s data (a labor strike, payback from January’s favorable weather conditions), but not enough to put much of a positive spin on today’s data . Nine of 14 sectors registered job losses a...