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Job losses were mild in February despite extreme snowstorms in much of the country, according to a government report released Friday, suggesting that while the labor market remains weak it is no longer getting worse.
Employers cut 36,000 net jobs, the Labor Department said, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7 percent. Economists had expected losses of 50,000 or more jobs and for the jobless rate to tick upward.
Forecasters believe that the snowstorms across the Northeast and other parts of the nation in the second week of February — the week that the payroll numbers are based upon — led to tens of thousands of reported job losses that were in fact caused by construction, retail and other workers whose hours were cut to zero because of snow. That suggests there could be a bounce-back in the payroll numbers in March, creating significant gains.
