By Rebecca Christie March 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy remains under strain even though the labor market is showing signs of improvement, said Alan Krueger, assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy. The Labor Department report that U.S. employers cut 36,000 jobs last month was “better than expected” given the snowstorms that kept a million workers at home in mid-February, Krueger said today in a briefing with reporters in Washington.
“The labor market is still facing stresses, though these stresses are easing,” Krueger said.
The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent in February. The drop in payrolls was smaller than the 68,000-job fall expected by a Bloomberg survey of 82 economists.
Krueger said it’s “plausible” that the employment data could have shown job growth if it had not been for the snow. The weather effects on the numbers should be transitory, he said, and the data so far support the administration’s forecast that gross domestic product will expand 2.7 percent this year.
Krueger said that “recoveries do not move in a straight line,” and he urged Congress to pass the Obama administration’s proposals to add jobs. “We’re in a situation where we need to accelerate hiring,” he said.
