March 2022 Jobs Report:
A Look at February's Trends

Executive Summary

February showed surprisingly impressive job growth with 200,000 additional jobs being added within the private sector since January, bringing the total number new jobs added to the market last month to 678,000. However, despite the rapid increase in available new jobs, the overall candidate pool remained tight with unemployment falling 0.2% from January and the labor force participation remaining largely unchanged with a participation rate of 62.3%. Quit rates also remained elevated with 4.25 million workers leaving their positions in January (22% higher than pre-pandemic levels) as many employees are continuing to seek opportunities for higher wages and/or career advancement, while others sought alternative jobs due to childcare issues, or simply because they were unhappy with inflexible working conditions.