The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its closely watched monthly labor report on Thursday, indicating that non-farm payrolls rose by 678,000 in February, surpassing expectations and reducing unemployment to a nearly two-year low of 3.8 percent. The Employment Situation Summary comes hot on the heels of the monthly payroll report by ADP, which indicated a growth of 475,000 non-farm private jobs. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics report is generally seen as more comprehensive and reliable, and is thus studied more closely than the figures from ADP. In both reports, job growth significantly surpassed expectations. The median of a survey of Bloomberg economists predicted 375,000 new jobs in February, whereas a Reuters poll of economists estimated that payrolls would rise by 400,000—both significantly fewer than the labor reports to emerge from last month. At 3.8 percent, unemployment is now nearing the pre-pandemic low of 3.5 percent in February 2020, with …