in Febs numbers Government jobs +52K Waiters and bartenders +42K
and
Full-Time Jobs USA Feb: 2024: 132.9M June 2023: 134.7M
so the headline may be a bit misleading
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When spread through the prior year, that amounts to about 25,000 fewer net jobs added per month, meaning that the average monthly job gain for the 12 months ended in March 2023 was nearly 312,000 versus 337,000, BLS data shows.
“The change is -0.2% and the average adjustment over the last 10 years has been 0.1%,” Chris Rupkey, economist with FwdBonds, wrote in a note Wednesday. “We don’t see any sign here that the labor market is secretly weak.”