WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a surprisingly robust 379,000 jobs last month in a sign the economy is strengthening as virus cases drop, vaccinations ramp up, Americans spend more and states ease business restrictions.
The February gain marked a sharp pickup from the 166,000 jobs that were added in January and the loss of 306,000 in December. Yet it represents just a fraction of the roughly 9.5 million that the economy must regain to return to where it was before the crisis.
Unemployment fell from 6.3 percent to 6.2 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday. That is down dramatically from 14.8 percent last April, just after the virus erupted in the United States. But it’s well above the pre-pandemic rate of 3.5 percent.
“The recovery really has some legs, some momentum now,” said Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American Financial Corp.