Friday, March 04, 2005
Employment surges
America's employers added a sizable 262,000 jobs in February — the most in four months. The new hiring, however, wasn't sufficiently brisk to accommodate a wave of job seekers, and the overall unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent.
The latest snapshot of the country's employment climate, released by the Labor Department on Friday, showed job gains across a range of industries — from manufacturing and construction to retail and business services.
The gain of 262,000 jobs in February was stronger than the increase of 225,000 positions that economists were forecasting before the release of the employment report. Payroll growth in February was up from January's sluggish gain of 132,000, which was less than the 146,000 increase initially reported.
The rise in the overall civilian unemployment rate to 5.4 percent in February was up from 5.2 percent in January. The increase last month came in part as more jobseekers streamed back into the market.
We have seen the impact of this at our company, which has a fair number of open positions. Our offers are being turned down more often, and it takes longer to find good people to whom we want to make an offer. The economy is heating up, folks.
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Gordon Smith, at
Fri Mar 04, 11:16:00 AM:
