Dispelling doubts over the health of the U.S. economy, strong February jobs data added a touch of optimism to last Friday’s proceedings. Jobs growth came in above most estimates, indicating a steadily improving labor market. A few niggles on wage growth and work hours remained, but year-over-year gains were strong.

Healthcare, retail and restaurants emerged as the largest contributors to job additions in February. This underlines the fact that stocks from these sectors make for good investment options. Picking growth oriented stocks from these industries would provide your portfolio with added impetus.

Substantial Job Additions

The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows us that the economy was boosted by 242,000 job additions this month, beating the consensus estimate of 194,000. This also exceeded January’s revised figure of 172,000 by a wide margin. Unemployment remained in line with January’s rate of 4.9%.

Additionally, U6, the most rigorous metric of unemployment in the U.S. economy, declined by 0.2% to 9.7%. This measure takes into account individuals who are not searching for employment or those who are working part time since they cannot secure full time employment.

However, there were a few worries on other fronts. The average workweek declined by 0.2 hours to 34.4 hours in February from January’s figure of 34.6 hours. Also, average hourly earnings declined 0.1% in February from January to $24.80 per hour, in contrast to the estimate of a 0.2% increase. However, the measure increased 2.2% on a yearly basis.

Healthcare, Retail, Restaurants Largest Contributors

The top three contributing sectors to February’s job additions were healthcare, retail and restaurants. Social assistance and healthcare contributed 57,000 jobs during the month. The healthcare industry has accounted for 181,000 job additions over the last 12 months. Several market watchers believe that this is one of the positive outcomes of Obamacare.