Investors expect a big jobs report Friday.
If President Trump’s celebratory tweets this week about unofficial jobs numbers are an indication, he will be gloating again Friday.
Recommended Stories
Private-sector forecasters expect that Friday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will show about 200,000 new jobs created in February, according to Bloomberg.
That would be a strong result, given the late stage of the jobs recovery. With the unemployment rate at 4.8 percent, fewer people need jobs each month — only 50,000 to 100,000, according to Federal Reserve research. Businesses are having more trouble finding workers for available openings than at any point of the recovery, according to a survey of small businesses conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business.
One reason to expect strong job growth is that layoffs have been relatively scarce, as indicated by claims for unemployment insurance. Those have been running at the lowest levels in the last four decades in the past month.
Another is that February was the second warmest February on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That likely boosted the construction industry during the month, as crews had to take fewer days off because of snow.
