Unemployment Ticks Up to 6.7%

Pretty decent news in today's jobs report: 175,000 jobs were added in February; economists had expected 152,000. The unemployment rate ticked up from 6.6% to 6.7%. It had been expected to drop to 6.5%, but the AP explains why you shouldn't be alarmed: It went up because more people started looking for work. Even though those additional job seekers haven't yet found employment, it may signal that Americans are feeling more optimistic about their job prospects.

Previous months were also revised higher: January actually saw 129,000 jobs created, not 113,000; December saw 84,000 new jobs, up from the initial 75,000 estimate. But the Wall Street Journal calls those "minor revisions," and notes that payrolls grew an average of 129,000 per month for the past three months—slower than last year's average of 189,000 per month. Overall, the Journal bloggers don't seem too impressed with this report. Paul Vigna notes that bad weather might once again be a factor, but "all this shows is that we still have an economy that is so weak that a couple of snowstorms can blow it off course," he quips. (More jobs report stories.)