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WASHINGTON (March 5) - The nation's added a paltry 21,000 jobs last month, according to a surprisingly weak government report Friday that turned up the heat on President Bush as he seeks re-election.
The Labor Department report was the latest to dash hopes that employment was following the rest of the economy higher, leaving some economists to warn that robust hiring may still be some way off.
''The job market is stuck in a cycle of inertia,'' said John Challenger, head of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. ''The fact is, we are going to have to get used to slow job creation in this country.''
Details in the report were as bleak as the headline figure. Private-sector employment was actually unchanged in February, while the government added 21,000 workers.
It also showed job creation in December and January was weaker than previously thought. The count of job gains for January was revised to 97,000 from 112,000 and for December to just 8,000 from 16,000.
February's unemployment rate held at 5.6 percent, but only because people dropped out of the labor force. Employment as measured by a survey of households actually plummeted.
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