WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation’s economy likely produced another month of healthy hiring in February, once again brushing aside the effects of high interest rates with unexpected ease.

When the Labor Department issues the monthly jobs report Friday, economists predict it will show that employers added a solid 200,000 jobs in February, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet. Though that would be down from the blockbuster gains in December (333,000) and January (353,000), it would still be plenty high enough to outpace population growth and keep the unemployment rate near a half-century low.

Economists have projected that the jobless rate stayed at 3.7% in February. If so, it would mark the 25th straight month in which the unemployment rate has remained below 4% - the longest such streak since the 1960s.

The job market’s health over the past three years, as the economy accelerated out of the pandemic recession, has been remarkably steady and strong. Now, there are signs it is cooling. Employers added 3.1 million jobs in 2023, a solid gain but down from 4.5 million in 2022 and a record 7.2 million in 2021. Job openings, while still relatively plentiful, are well below their peak.

The deceleration in hiring, though, is being welcomed by the Federal Reserve, which might otherwise worry that a too-hot job market would force companies to sharply raise wages and prices and re-ignite inflation. When the Fed began aggressively raising rates in March 2022 to fight the worst bout of inflation in four decades, a painful recession was widely predicted, with waves of layoffs and high unemployment. The Fed boosted its benchmark rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023, to the highest level in more than two decades.

Inflation has eased, more or less steadily, in response: Consumer prices in January were up just 3.1% from a year earlier - way down from a year-over-year peak of 9.1% in 2022 and edging closer to the Fed’s 2% target.

Despite sharply lower inflation, a consistently healthy job market and a record-high stock market, many Americans say they are unhappy with the state of the economy - a sentiment that is sure to weigh on President Joe Biden’s bid for re-election. Many voters blame Biden for the surge in consumer prices that began in 2021. Even after inflationary pressures have significantly cooled, average prices remain about 17% above where they stood three years ago.

Yet the progress so far against inflation has been striking, and many Americans are exhibiting confidence in the economy through their actions: Consumers, whose average wages have outpaced inflation over the past year and who socked away money during the pandemic, have continued to spend and drive economic growth.