Sure, the global economy is still shaky. But U.S. businesses are actually expanding their workforces, according to the latest research from Cushman & Wakefield.
Cushman & Wakefield’s March Employment Tracker report showed that U.S. businesses increased their non-farm payrolls by a total of 242,000 new jobs in February. That’s a stronger showing than analysts had predicted for the month.
Rebecca Rockey, head of forecasting for the Americas for Cushman & Wakefield Research, said that the positive news “is finally calming the nerves of the anxious equity markets.”
The positive February jobs news is appreciated. That’s because it follows a disappointing January, in which 172,000 new non-farm jobs were added by U.S. businesses.
Cushman reported that in February, the United States added 41,000 office-using jobs and 54,900 retail jobs.
Not all industries, though, saw employment gains in February. Mining jobs were down 18,000, manufacturing 16,000 and transportation and warehousing 5,300.
Minneapolis had the lowest unemployment rate among Midwest markets at the end of February, coming in at 3.2 percent, according to Cushman’s report. Two Midwest cities, though, made the list of major markets with the highest unemployment rates as of the end of February: Detroit, with an unemployment rate of 6.2 percent, and Chicago, 5.8 percent.
