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February hiring slump tugs down Chicago Fed’s national economic measure

March 25, 2019

The numbers: A much weaker-than-expected February hiring total, a potentially one-month surprise within a still-strong job market, soured the latest broad-based measure of the U.S. economy from the Chicago Federal Reserve.

The Chicago Fed’s index of national economic activity registered at a negative 0.29 in February from an upwardly revised negative 0.25 in January, the central bank branch said Monday. December’s reading was just in positive territory, capping a string of consecutive positive readings from June through the end of last year.

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