Economy adds just 20K jobs in February, far below expectations

The U.S. economy added 20,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported Friday, far below analysts’ expectations that the country would gain 180,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percentage points to 3.8 percent as the labor force participation rate held steady at 63.2 percent. Hourly earnings also increased 3.4 percent in the past 12 months, beating expectations.

The underwhelming February numbers follow a stellar January jobs report, which was revised upward Thursday from 304,000 to 311,000 jobs.

View the complete March 8 article by Sylvan Lane on the Hill website here.