Below, EPI economists offer their initial insights on the jobs report released this morning. The report showed a strong 678,000 jobs added in February, for a total of 7.9 million jobs added since the end of 2020.

From EPI senior economist, Elise Gould (@eliselgould):

Read the full Twitter thread here.

This month, the household survey and the establishment survey tell a very consistent story of a continuing strong recovery. Both show significant gains in employment and the unemployment rate is falling for the “right” reasons as more workers return to the labor market. pic.twitter.com/YCTE8yseOM

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) March 4, 2022

The largest gains continue to be in leisure and hospitality, increasing 179,000 in February. Education and health services and professional and business services also recorded solid gains, though slow job growth in public sector employment is concerning. pic.twitter.com/gAqlDVDcx7

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) March 4, 2022

From EPI president, Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz):

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We added 678,000 jobs in February, for a total of 7.9 million jobs added since the end of 2020. It’s mindbogglingly fast and sustained growth—well over half a million jobs added per month on average for more than a year. 1/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) March 4, 2022

We are on pace to recover EIGHT YEARS faster than we recovered from the Great Recession. Why do we have such a fast recovery this time around when other recent recoveries have been so weak? That’s because of CARES and ARPA. 4/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) March 4, 2022

Basically, without the Covid relief and recovery measures congress enacted, our recovery today would be like the very weak and very slow recovery following the Great Recession. 6/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) March 4, 2022

But *all* groups are seeing far (far!) faster recoveries than they did following the Great Recession, and that’s about CARES and ARPA. The importance of those policies to labor market healing following the worst recession in our lifetime cannot be overstated. 9 /

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) March 4, 2022

Without the strong jobs recovery created by CARES and ARPA, this burst of mostly inevitable inflation would’ve been much much more damaging to working families. 11/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) March 4, 2022