Employment soared by 298,000 new jobs in February, far outpacing projections, as companies hired at a furious pace, according to a newly-released report.
“We have a blowout number,” a CNBC reporter said as he presented the numbers this morning. “I’m a little breathless.”
The total “shattered” market expectations of 190,000, according to economists surveyed by ADP, reported CNBC, which added that there was a “notable shift away from the service-sector positions that have dominated hiring for years.”
Construction jobs rose by 66,000 jobs and manufacturing increased by 32,000.
“February proved to be an incredibly strong month for employment with increases we have not seen in years,” Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said in a statement.
The report comes after President Trump’s first full month in office, and government numbers will be released Friday (the Labor Department reportedly expects the report to show growth of about 185,000 jobs). The stock market has soared; business leaders say there is a new pro-business climate in the United States.
“Confidence is playing a large role,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, told CNBC. “Businesses are anticipating a lot of good stuff — tax cuts, less regulation. They are hiring more aggressively.”
Job creation was “fairly evenly distributed across business size,” CNBC said. “Companies with 50 to 499 employees added the most with 122,000, while small firms added 104,000 and large contributed 72,000.”
On Wednesday, Trump went on Twitter to cite a workforce report that showed January and February job growth was excellent.
“LinkedIn Workforce Report: January and February were the strongest consecutive months for hiring since August and September 2015,” he wrote.
