3 Things to Watch in Friday’s February Jobs Report

The February jobs report is released on Friday. Economists expect nonfarm payrolls to rise by 190,000. Michael Hanson, senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, expects job creation to the tune of a lighter 175,000 jobs. Though he isn’t concerned to see job growth below a monthly pace of 200,000 jobs, once considered a critical gauge of labor market strength. ‘200,000 a month is typically in line with an economy that’s growing better than 3 percent,’ he said. ‘We’re growing around 2 percent on a near-term trend basis so I wouldn’t be surprised to see nonfarm payrolls settling around the mid-100,000 range. So 175,000 jobs or Wall Street’s view of 190,000 is still a pretty good number by that standard.’ On Wednesday, the ADP Employment Report showed private payrolls increased by 214,000 in February. The ADP report tends to foreshadow the government’s jobs figures. TheStreet’s Scott Gamm reports from Wall Street.