It was the third straight month of features above 200,000, and the thirty eighth consecutive month of development — recent proof that after surging again from the pandemic shutdowns, America’s jobs engine nonetheless has loads of steam.

“We’ve been anticipating a slowdown within the labor market, a extra materials loosening in circumstances, however we’re simply not seeing that,” mentioned Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist at Excessive Frequency Economics.

The earlier two months, December and January, had been revised down by a mixed 167,000 jobs, reflecting the upper diploma of statistical volatility within the winter months. That also doesn’t disrupt an image of constant strong will increase.

On the similar time, the unemployment price, primarily based on a survey of households, elevated to a two-year excessive of three.9 %, from 3.7 % in January.

The unemployment price was pushed by individuals dropping or leaving jobs in addition to these coming into the labor drive to search for work. The labor drive participation price for individuals of their prime working years — ages 25 to 54 — jumped again as much as 83.5 %, matching a degree from final yr that was the best because the early 2000s.

Common hourly earnings rose by 4.3 % over the yr.

As late as final fall, economists had been predicting rather more modest employment development, with hiring concentrated in just a few industries. However whereas some pandemic-inflated industries have shed jobs, anticipated downturns in sectors like building haven’t materialized. Rising wages, engaging advantages and extra versatile work schedules have drawn hundreds of thousands of employees off the sidelines, with elevated ranges of immigration including to the labor provide.

Well being care and authorities once more led the payroll features, whereas building continued its regular improve. Retail, eating places, transportation and warehousing, which have been flat to damaging in latest months, picked up. No main industries misplaced a considerable variety of jobs, although credit score intermediation continued its downward slide; that sector, which largely consists of industrial banking, has misplaced about 123,000 jobs since early 2021.

That doesn’t imply the employment panorama seems rosy to everybody. Worker confidence, as measured by the company rating website Glassdoor, has been falling steadily as layoffs by tech and media firms have grabbed headlines. That’s very true in white-collar professions like human assets and consulting, whereas these in professions that require working in individual — equivalent to well being care, building and manufacturing — are extra upbeat.

“It’s a two-track labor market,” mentioned Aaron Terrazas, Glassdoor’s chief economist. “For expert employees in risk-intensive industries, anybody who’s been laid off is having a tough time discovering new jobs, whereas for those who’re a blue-collar or frontline service employee, it’s nonetheless aggressive.”

The previous couple of months have been studded with sturdy financial knowledge, main analysts surveyed by the Nationwide Affiliation for Enterprise Economics to lift their forecasts for gross home product and decrease their expectations for the trajectory of unemployment. It’s occurred whilst inflation has eased, main the Federal Reserve to telegraph its plans for rate of interest cuts someday this yr, which has raised development expectations additional.

Mervin Jebaraj, director of the Middle for Enterprise and Financial Analysis on the College of Arkansas, helped tabulate the survey responses. He mentioned the temper was buoyed partly by fading trepidation over federal authorities shutdowns and draconian price range cuts, after a number of shut calls because the fall. And he sees no apparent motive for the restoration to finish quickly.

“As soon as it begins going, it retains going,” Mr. Jebaraj mentioned. “You had this exterior stimulus with all of the trillions of {dollars} of presidency spending, Now it’s type of self-sustaining, regardless that the cash’s gone.”