If the economy is slowing down, nobody told the labor market.<\/p>\n

Employers added 275,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported Friday, in another month that exceeded expectations even as the unemployment rate rose.<\/p>\n

It was the third straight month of gains above 200,000, and the 38th consecutive month of growth \u2014 fresh evidence that four years after going into pandemic shutdowns, America\u2019s jobs engine still has plenty of steam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been expecting a slowdown in the labor market, a more material loosening in conditions, but we\u2019re just not seeing that,\u201d said Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.<\/p>\n

Previously reported figures for December and January were revised downward by a total of 167,000, reflecting the higher degree of statistical volatility in the winter months. That does not disrupt a picture of consistent, robust increases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At the same time, the unemployment rate, based on a survey of households rather than businesses, increased to a two-year high of 3.9 percent. The increase from 3.7 percent in January was driven by people losing or leaving jobs as well as those entering the labor force to look for work.<\/p>\n

A more expansive measure of slack labor market conditions, which includes people working part time who would rather work full time, has been steadily rising and now stands at 7.3 percent.<\/p>\n

In a positive sign, the labor force participation rate for people in their prime working years \u2014 ages 25 to 54 \u2014 jumped to 83.5 percent, matching a level from last year that was the highest since the early 2000s. The participation rate for those over age 55 remains markedly below its prepandemic level, potentially in part because the booming housing and stock markets have allowed more people to retire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Average hourly earnings rose by 4.3 percent over the year. Wages have outpaced prices since last May, though the pace of increases has been fading.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve recently seen gains in real wages, and that\u2019s encouraged people to re-enter the labor market, and that\u2019s a good development for workers,\u201d said Kory Kantenga, a senior economist at the job search website LinkedIn. As wage growth slows, he said, the likelihood that more people will start looking for work falls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As late as last fall, economists were predicting much more modest employment increases, with hiring concentrated in a few industries. Some pandemic-inflated industries have shed jobs, but expected downturns in sectors like construction have not materialized.<\/p>\n

The last few months have been studded with strong economic data, prompting analysts surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics to raise their forecasts for gross domestic product and lower their expectations for the trajectory of unemployment. Inflation has eased, leading the Federal Reserve to telegraph its plans for interest rate cuts sometime this year, which many see as insurance should the job market stumble.<\/p>\n

Mervin Jebaraj, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas, helped tabulate the survey responses. He said the mood was buoyed partly by fading trepidation over federal government shutdowns and draconian budget cuts, after several close calls since the fall. And there\u2019s no harm, he said, in a tamer but more sustainable pace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf we gain 150,000 jobs every month this year, that would still be an incredible year, but it would still be cooling compared to last year,\u201d Mr. Jebaraj said. \u201cAnd maybe we want both things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, some of the cooling may have allowed for more durable growth. As extreme labor shortages eased and the wave of job quitting subsided, employers unable to win bidding wars for workers have had an easier time filling positions. And as people stick around longer, productivity has improved, which makes it easier to pay more without increasing prices.<\/p>\n

Health care and government again led the payroll gains in February, while construction continued its steady increase. Retail, restaurants, transportation and warehousing, which have been flat to negative in recent months, picked up. <\/p>\n

No major industries lost a substantial number of jobs. High interest rates continue to suppress manufacturing, however, while credit intermediation continued its downward slide \u2014 that sector, which mostly includes commercial banking, has lost about 123,000 jobs since early 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Few businesses are more emblematic of the power behind recent employment gains than home health services for older people, which count 164,000 more jobs than before the pandemic \u2014 fully offsetting the decline of nursing and residential care facilities, which have been less popular since Covid-19 ripped through them in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Elaine Flores is the chief operating officer of Medical Home Care Professionals, an agency in Redding, Calif., that employs 102 clinical staff members and caregivers. That\u2019s up about 20 percent since early 2020, though the net gain underestimates how many people she\u2019s had to hire as experienced providers have left the profession.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more nurses are retiring out,\u201d Ms. Flores said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the most difficult discipline to recruit, and we compete against hospitals, which have beautiful benefits packages that, on home health margins, we can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elevated levels of immigration may help with that problem in the coming years. According to an analysis by the Brookings Institution, the influx over the last two years has approximately doubled the number of jobs that the economy could add per month in 2024 without putting upward pressure on inflation, to a range of 160,000 to 200,000.<\/p>\n

That does not mean the employment landscape looks rosy to everyone. Employee confidence, as measured by the company rating website Glassdoor, has been falling steadily as layoffs by tech and media companies have grabbed headlines. That is especially true in white-collar professions like human resources and consulting, while those in occupations that require working in person \u2014 such as health care, construction and manufacturing \u2014 are more upbeat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt is a two-track labor market,\u201d said Aaron Terrazas, Glassdoor\u2019s chief economist, noting that job searches are taking longer for people with graduate degrees. \u201cFor skilled workers in risk-intensive industries, anyone who\u2019s been laid off is having a hard time finding new jobs, whereas if you\u2019re a blue-collar or frontline service worker, it\u2019s still competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those having a hard time finding steady employment turn increasingly to gig work, Mr. Terrazas noted, which is not picked up in the payrolls data. That has been true for Clifford Johnson, 70, who retired from his accounting job in Orlando, Fla., three years ago and began drawing Social Security.<\/p>\n

The outlook changed when Mr. Johnson separated from his husband and had to rent an apartment, which in the hot Orlando housing market costs $2,350 a month. He has not landed another accounting job, and a retail position did not work out. He has run through his limited savings, and for now he drives for Uber Eats full time \u2014 even on the weekend \u2014 to stay afloat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just doing what I can do to make money every day,\u201d Mr. Johnson said. He\u2019s hoping a couple of contract accounting positions come through, since driving that much is physically exhausting. \u201cIf you\u2019re 25 or just graduating from college, it\u2019s a lot different than if you\u2019re 70 and still trying to make a living.\u201d<\/p>\n

The path forward for the labor market, which few have managed to accurately predict, remains hazy. Every seeming threat so far \u2014 including wars, substantial interest rate increases and bank collapses \u2014 has been met with unflappability.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Thomas Simons, senior economist at the investment banking firm Jefferies, thinks the economy will look weaker at the end of the year than it does now, despite the lack of any obvious potholes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been 30-plus years since we\u2019ve had an economic cycle like this, where we are waiting for enough drag to coalesce between different sectors to take the whole number down,\u201d Mr. Simons said. \u201cI still believe it\u2019s unlikely that it\u2019s going to continue indefinitely, even without a discrete catalyst.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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