Nonfarm payrolls rose by a net 295,000 in February. Job gains were widespread, led by growth in leisure and hospitality (up 66,000), education and health care (up 54,000), and professional and business services (up 51,000) sectors. Revisions to the previous two months' estimates subtracted 18,000 jobs on net. December remained up by 329,000 and January was revised down from 257,000 to 239,000.
Monthly job gains averaged 288,000 over the past three months. The year-over-year change was 3.3 million jobs, the highest year-over-year gain since the late 1990s.
