BLS non-farm jobs was +192,000.  Consensus was around 180,000.  Some Treasury selling the previous two days may have been speculation that BLS would be better than expected. 

The unemployment rate was 8.9%.  The civilian labor force increased slightly after suffering a large loss in January.  Recall that jobs day is obtained from businesses and the size of the labor force is obtained from household surveys.  The number of people in the civilian labor force is less than is was in February 2010.  If the Unemployment Rate is falling because fewer people are looking for work that is not ideal.

Government jobs were lost and will likely be lost for the next several months as fiscal realities hit state and local governments which were able to defer their issues last year because they received a lot of stimulus dollars.

The Average Workweek was down to 34.2 hours and Hourly Earnings was unchanged.

One sector which has been strong is good producing. Factory Orders were +3.1% in January.

Longer term issues aside this report must be viewed as a positive for the economy. I by no means see this as indication that the unemployment rate will continue to fall.  There is so much happening with both fiscal policy and monetary policy that this cannot be viewed as a self-sustaining recovery.  This is a recovering patient with dual IVs of a +$1.5 trillion deficit and a near-zero Fed funds.

Comments

[Larry Brunson]

Somebody qualified please do the following. Write on an 8th grade level about details to improve the economy. Nobody is doing this. Instead we are just copying the politicians' mantras. For example, "Anything that creates jobs helps". This is a lie. There are many jobs that won't help because they don't either bring real wealth into the economy or reduce the debt (e.g. government jobs). We desperately need an articulation examining the different things the media has said will help. If we had this articulation the public would have known the Obama stimulus bill was doomed at the every start.

[Dick Lepre]

Larry,

I agree with what you say. The starting point is to stop making believe that the government creates jobs. Jobs are created by a coming together of capital, labor and demand for a product or service. The most important thing government can do is stay out of the way.