Insights and Perspectives

The U.S. economy gained 275,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate rose to 3.9%. Job creation finished close to the Geographic Solutions

Geographic Solutions' Economist, Phillip Sprehe, predicts that jobs will increase by 258,000 and the unemployment rate will rise to 3.8% in February.

While the labor force and unemployment rate remained unchanged, the U.S. economy gained 353,000 jobs in January, far exceeding the expectations of 255,000 jobs from the GSI Labor Market Forecast and 185,000 jobs from the WSJ Survey earlier this week.

According to the monthly Current Employment Statistics (CES) report and Current Population Survey (CPS) from The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment in the U.S. in December 2023 gained 216,000 additional jobs, while the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%.

According to the monthly Current Employment Statistics (CES) report and Current Population Survey (CPS) from The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment in the U.S. in November 2023 picked up to 199,000 additional jobs, while the unemployment rate declined to 3.7%.

In October 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that employment in the U.S. slowed to 150,000 additional jobs, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9%.

Employment was quite a bit stronger over the last three months than originally estimated. Revisions in July and August added 119,000 more jobs than reported last month.

Employment noticeably softened during the summer, averaging only 150,000 new jobs per month from June through August after averaging 238,000 from March to May of this year.

Employment in the U.S. rose by 187,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. The Geographic Solutions forecast matched the 3.5% result and outperformed the WSJ estimate of 3.6%.

Job creation was strongest in the Education & Health Services and Government sectors.