Not bad. The US economy generated 175,000 jobs in February, up from 129,000 in January, and better than economic prognosticators had prognosticated. The unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point to 6.7%.
You already know the headline numbers. Here are some of the important details from the data:
Weather was a big deal in February
Bad weather likely was to blame for the shortened work weeks in recent months
But people also seem to be coming back into the labor force, which grew by 264,000
Though the overall participation rate remains low, due in part to retiring baby boomers
If you strip out the old folks by looking only at the working-age population, participation among men has improved recently
Things are clearly still rough for a lot of people, especially those stuck in part-time jobs against their will
In terms of good news, production workers got their best monthly raise in years
State and local hiring, which has been a drag on the job market in recent years, picked up by about 19,000
Temp workers, sometimes viewed as a barometer of future hiring, also bounced back, adding more than 24,000 jobs
Some 15,000 construction jobs were created, despite the weather
It was a good month for better-paying business and professional service jobs, which grew by 79,000
The broadest gauge of US under-employment (definition here) fell to its lowest level since the fall of 2008, when the financial crisis deepened
