The US Department of Labor reported Friday that 233,000 private sector jobs were added in February, while the unemployment rate held steady at 8.3 percent--a three-year low. US job growth over the last six months has been the strongest since before the recession. In February, 31,000 new manufacturing jobs were added--2 million manufacturing jobs were lost during the recession and 429,000 positions have been added back in the last two years.
The construction industry lost 13,000 jobs between January and February, but continued a string of year-over-year job increases, according to an analysis of new federal employment data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said that short-term factors such as weather contributed to the monthly loss even as longer-term trends are becoming a bit more positive.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada said Friday that employment in the country was unchanged in February and a decline in the number of people learning for work is what pushed the unemployment rate down 0.2 percent to 7.4 percent. Year-over-year in February, employment was up by 121,000 or 0.7 percent.