Firms south of the border kept adding jobs in February despite the coronavirus scare, as private payrolls expanded well above the pace that Wall Street had anticipated.
The monthly report from Moody's Analytics revealed U.S. employment excluding government jobs rose by 183,000 for the month, topping the 155,000 that economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected.
The job growth came during a month in which fear spread that the COVID-19 strain would lead to a global economic slowdown. So far, 93,455 cases have been confirmed worldwide, including 3,198 deaths.
However, the economy remained resilient and companies continued to hire in the face of the worries and a wildly volatile stock market that reflected jitters over how widespread the coronavirus might get.
One analyst with Moody's, however, warned that the coronavirus impact has not shown up in the data yet, adding that "it’s just a matter of time" before the numbers in future months reflect the situation.
Non-farm payroll numbers for February are due out Friday.
