Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics said that the latest employment data shows that the labor market last month was healthy; however, global growth fears have shifted expectations for the U.S. economy. “Unfortunately, the apparent strength of jobs growth in February provides little comfort at this stage and, with a widespread coronavirus outbreak in the US looking increasingly likely, we expect economic growth to slow over the next few months,” Hunter said. “That is unlikely to have an immediate impact on jobs growth, but it does suggest some softening is likely over the coming months, with the risk of a much sharper slowdown if more serious virus-related disruption forces firms in industries like travel, retail and leisure to start laying off workers.”