Here’s the place the roles are for February 2023 — in a single chart

The U.S. labor market shocked to the upside but once more in February, powered by continued power within the service sectors of the economic system.

The leisure and hospitality sector added 105,000 jobs final month, in keeping with the Labor Department, accounting for roughly a 3rd of the entire 311,000 jobs achieve.

The well being care and social help section was one other massive contributor, including practically 63,000 jobs.

Leisure and hospitality has been constantly one of many strongest sectors because the U.S. economic system has recovered from the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which noticed bars and eating places shut in massive numbers throughout the nation. Food and drink companies accounted for 70,000 job positive factors final month.

However, the sector remains to be 2.4% under its pre-pandemic employment stage, in keeping with the Labor Department.

“We’re still short,” mentioned Steve Rick, chief economist for CUNA Mutual Group. “We still don’t have the same amount of people working at hotels and restaurants as we did in 2019. So that’s why we’re still adding jobs at a pretty feverish pace in those areas.”

However, there are some weaknesses in different components of the economic system. The 25,000-job decline in info expertise exhibits the impression of layoffs at tech corporations, whereas transportation and manufacturing jobs additionally retreated.

Transportation and warehousing jobs are actually down 42,000 since October, in keeping with the Labor Department.

“We’re seeing a bifurcation of the economy between the goods and services sector,” Rick mentioned.