Statement by US Secretary of Labor Walsh on February Jobs Report

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh issued the following statement on the February 2022 Employment Situation Report:

“Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the American economy added 678,000 jobs in the month of February, and the unemployment rate was 3.8 percent, down from 4.0 percent in January. This powerful job growth continues the Biden-Harris administration’s historic, worker-centered recovery.

With over seven million jobs added since the President took office, we now have recovered more than 90 percent of the jobs lost at the onset of the pandemic. Last month’s job growth was widespread across the private sector, with notable gains for hard-hit leisure and hospitality businesses. In addition, workers with less than a high-school diploma have the lowest unemployment rate on record since BLS began tracking this data in 1992.

“Working people are empowered by this recovery to seek better opportunities, and at the Department of Labor we are working through our Good Jobs Initiative to improve job quality, job access, and job equity across the economy. We are expanding our work with government partners and private-sector employers to strengthen supply chains, create more equitable pathways into good jobs, and increase workers’ wages and bargaining power. With the administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law beginning to invest in communities across the country, we have the opportunity to create many more good jobs and make sure that they are accessible to all workers.”