--- title: Employers Add 295,000 Jobs as Economy Keeps Rolling description: The economy continues its ascent despite global weakness. authors: - name: Taylor Tepper url: https://money.com/author/taylor-tepper-3/ at_money_since: 2013 articles: 168 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/TaylorTepper former_staff: true published: '2015-03-06T13:36:59.000Z' modified: '2015-03-06T13:36:59.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - bonds - Economy - Employment - Federal Reserve - Gallup - Jobs - stocks - Tips - unemployment report - Wells Fargo word_count: 404 canonical: https://money.com/jobs-economy-employment/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Employers Add 295,000 Jobs as Economy Keeps Rolling](https://img.money.com/2014/10/141017_gen_car.jpg?quality=85&w=1012&h=569&crop=1) The U.S. economy [gained](http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm) 295,000 jobs in February, the 12th consecutive month employers added more than 200,000 to their payrolls. Meanwhile the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5%. This is yet another sign of an improving — or what economists would call a "tightening" — labor market. The rate at which workers are [quitting their jobs](http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/JTSQUR) has risen near levels not seen since before the 2007-2009 recession, implying that workers are feeling more secure that better opportunities lie ahead. The number of unemployed workers who've been out of work [27 weeks or longer](http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNS13025703), while still high, is 31.1%, compared with 36.8% a year ago. Average hourly [earnings](http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES0500000003) grew by 0.1% last month, after rising 0.5% in January. Wages are up 2% over this time 12 months ago. That's being be read by many analysts as a relatively sluggish number. That last bit is important. While the labor market has been improving for more than a year, wage growth has disappointed. That in turn has kept a lid on inflation, which is one of the main reasons why interest rates have been next to nothing since the Great Recession and why the Fed, even now, will be "[patient](http://www.cnbc.com/id/102435876)" in raising the cost of borrowing. Even so "labor tightness is showing up in several high-profile labor disputes," [notes](http://content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/640c1cfc-9f7a-4ef8-94f1-65d7e531d323.pdf) BMO chief investment officer Jack Ablin. Recent anecdotal evidence points to workers having more power in their dealings with management — take striking [port](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/16/us-usa-ports-west-asia-idUSKBN0LK0A420150216) and [refinery](http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-refiners-striking-workers-digging-in-for-protracted-battle-1425498602) workers and pay raises for [Wal-Mart](http://fortune.com/2015/03/04/walmart-pay-hikes-why-now/) and [TJ Maxx](http://fortune.com/2015/02/25/tj-maxx-raises-wages-following-wal-marts-lead/) employees. And the economy is still plugging along: an index that gauges non-manufacturing [business](http://www.wsj.com/articles/ism-non-manufacturing-index-edges-up-to-56-9-in-february-1425482198) rose a bit last month despite the headwinds from West Coast port strikes. "It was a miracle that the ISM non-manufacturing index managed to tick up for the second month in a row," says Gluskin Sheff chief economist David Rosenberg. Americans are feeling more confident about their finances, too. In the first three months of this year, the Wells Fargo/ Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index jumped to its highest level since 2007. (Thank cheap gas prices.) Wells Fargo Securities senior economist Sam Bullard believes the economy will continue to add workers this year at a clip of 224,000 per month. "If realized, this strength in hiring would be enough to continue to pressure the unemployment rate lower and should result in a higher pace of wage growth–all supportive to a Fed tightening move in the coming months," Bullard says. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/jobs-economy-employment/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Economy", "item": "https://money.com/economy/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Employers Add 295,000 Jobs as Economy Keeps Rolling" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/jobs-economy-employment/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/jobs-economy-employment/", "name": "Employers Add 295,000 Jobs as Economy Keeps Rolling", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-03-06T13:36:59.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/jobs-economy-employment/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/jobs-economy-employment/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2015-03-06T13:36:59.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Employers Add 295,000 Jobs as Economy Keeps Rolling", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/10/141017_gen_car.jpg?quality=85", "width": 2638, "height": 1698 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Taylor Tepper", "url": "https://money.com/author/taylor-tepper-3/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/taylor-tepper-3/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_tepper1.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "ttepper@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/TaylorTepper" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-03-06T13:36:59.000Z", "description": "The economy continues its ascent despite global weakness.", "abstract": "The economy continues its ascent despite global weakness.", "@id": "https://money.com/jobs-economy-employment/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2015-03-06T13:36:59.000Z", "wordCount": 404, "keywords": [ "bonds", "Economy", "Employment", "Federal Reserve", "Gallup", "Jobs", "stocks", "Tips", "unemployment report", "Wells Fargo" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy" ] } ] } ] } ```