By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hiring in the United States jumped in February as employers added 273,000 jobs, evidence that the economy was in strong shape before the coronavirus began to sweep through the nation.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% last month, matching a 50-year low, down from 3.6% in January.

The monthly job gain comes from a survey of payrolls in the second week of February, predating the viral outbreak. So far, there are few signs that the job market has been affected by the disease, but most economists expect hiring to slow in the coming months.

Wage growth slowed slightly in February, rising 3% compared with a year earlier, down from a 3.1% year-over-year average gain in January. Paychecks have grown at a 3% pace or higher for more than a year and a half but have slowed since reaching 3.5% last summer.

The government on Friday also upgraded its estimate of job growth in December and January by a combined 85,000 more than it had previously reported. Over the past three months, U.S. employers have added 243,000 jobs — the best quarter pace since September 2016.

Unseasonably warm weather in February likely boosted hiring in the construction industry, which added 42,000 jobs, and hotels and restaurants, which gained nearly 50,000.

Manufacturing added 15,000, which probably won’t be replicated in the coming months because of supply chain disruptions in China. Last month’s totals include 7,000 temporary Census jobs to help compile the 2020 count.

If employers were to start slashing jobs as a consequence of the virus, it could significantly escalate the economic damage. For that reason, a range of job market barometers will provide some of the most vital signals about how the economy is withstanding the virus’ impact.

Widespread layoffs can transform slowdowns in just one or two sectors — the travel industry, say, or manufacturing — into a full-blown downturn for the overall economy. When workers lose jobs and pay, they typically cut spending. Their friends and relatives who are still employed grow anxious about their own jobs and wary of spending freely, a cycle that can trigger further job cuts.

So long as monthly job gains remain above 100,000 or so, the unemployment rate should stay low and the economy may be able to avoid a downturn. If the monthly pace were to sink below that level for a sustained period, joblessness would likely rise.

Before the viral outbreak struck China, shutting factories and causing shortages of parts and final products for U.S. manufacturers and retailers, the economy was expanding at a steady pace. Annual growth was 2.1% in the final three months of last year.

In 2019, employers added jobs at a pace of about 175,000 a month, slightly slower than in 2018 but enough to absorb new workers and lower the unemployment rate over time.

A pickup in housing sales has supported growth, with ultra-low mortgage rates helping more buyers afford a purchase. And consumer spending, fueled by solid pay increases, has lifted online retailers, restaurants, and the broader economy.

The timeliest gauge of layoffs is the government’s weekly report on applications for unemployment benefits. People who are laid off are eligible for the aid. The latest data, issued Thursday, was reassuring: It showed that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits dropped 3,000 to 216,000 in the week that ended Feb. 29. That is roughly the same as the average over the past month and is a very low level historically.

The job market appears resilient for now according to several gauges. The jobs website Indeed’s data shows that companies have yet to cut their job postings, evidence that they are still willing to hire.

And on Wednesday, payroll processor ADP said companies added a healthy 183,000 jobs in February. That figure was likely boosted, though, by unseasonably warm weather that spurred hiring in construction and a category that mostly includes restaurants and hotels.

Should coronavirus worries start to depress consumer and business confidence, a broader pullback in spending and hiring could then weaken the economy.

So far, that evidence is mixed. A consumer confidence survey by survey research company Morning Consult has already shown clear declines. But a separate survey of small businesses by the National Federation for Independent Business found that about one-fifth of small companies in February planned to add jobs, unchanged from the previous month.

A survey of the Fed’s business contacts released Wednesday, known as the Beige Book, found that half the bank’s 12 districts were reporting consequences from the coronavirus. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported fewer tourist groups from China and said many of the city’s Asian restaurants and shops had reported declining foot traffic because of unfounded fears over the virus.

By AMANDA SEITZ and BARBARA ORTUTAY

AP – Four years after Russia-linked groups stoked divisions in the U.S. presidential election on social media platforms, a new report shows that Moscow’s campaign hasn’t let up and has become harder to detect.

The report from University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Young Mie Kim found that Russia-linked social media accounts are posting about the same divisive issues — race relations, gun laws and immigration — as they did in 2016, when the Kremlin polluted American voters’ feeds with messages about the presidential election.

Since then, however, the Russians have grown better at imitating U.S. campaigns and political fan pages online, said Kim, who analyzed thousands of posts. She studied more than 5 million Facebook ads during the 2016 election, identifying Russia’s fingerprints on some of the messages through an ad-tracking app installed on volunteers’ computers. Her review is co-published by the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy institute, where she is a scholar.

The recent improvements make it harder for voters and social media platforms to identify the foreign interference, Kim said.

“For normal users, it is too subtle to discern the differences,” Kim said. “By mimicking domestic actors, with similar logos (and) similar names, they are trying to avoid verification.”

Kim’s report comes weeks after U.S. intelligence officials briefed lawmakers on Russian efforts to stir chaos in American politics and undermine public confidence in this year’s election. The classified briefing detailed Russian efforts to boost the White House bids of both Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that Russia was still actively waging “information warfare” with an army of fictional social media personas and bots that spread disinformation.

In a rare, joint statement Monday, the leaders of America’s intelligence agencies cautioned that foreign actors were spreading false information ahead of Super Tuesday to “cause confusion and create doubt in our system.”

But intelligence officials have not released any details about the type of disinformation or explained how Americans should protect themselves from it.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the U.S. elections, and did so again on Thursday.

“You just want us to repeat again that we have nothing to do with the U.S. elections,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Facebook, which had not seen Kim’s report, had no immediate comment, though the company has insisted that it is getting better at responding to the evolving tactics of foreign and domestic actors.

After getting caught off-guard with Russia’s 2016 election interference attempts, Facebook, Google, Twitter and others put safeguards in place to prevent it from happening again. This includes taking down posts, groups and accounts that engage in “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” and strengthening verification procedures for political ads.

Cindy Otis, a disinformation expert and former CIA officer who was not involved in the research, said that while disinformation messaging has not changed much, the technology used to disseminate the bad information is evolving and improving.

“Certainly with the Russians, they know what kinds of narratives work in the U.S.,” Otis said. “The whole system of disinformation is very effective and they know that it is.”

Kim’s report pulls back the curtain on some of the online techniques Russia has already used in this year’s presidential race.

Her review identified thousands of posts last year from more than 30 Instagram accounts, which Facebook removed from the site in October after concluding that they originated from Russia and had links to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian operation that targeted U.S. audiences in 2016. Facebook owns Instagram. Analysis from Graphika, a disinformation security firm, also concluded at the time that the accounts went to “great lengths to hide their origins.”

Kim’s analysis found the accounts appeared to mimic existing political ones, including one called “Bernie.2020_” that used campaign logos to make it seem like it was connected to Sanders’ campaign or was a fan page for his supporters, Kim said.

Some presidential candidates also were targeted directly.

An account called Stop.Trump2020 posted anti-Trump content. Other Instagram accounts pushed negative messages about Democrat Joe Biden.

“Like for Trump 2020,” said one meme featuring a portrait photo of Trump and a photo of Biden. “Ignore for Biden 2020.”

It was posted by an Instagram account called Iowa.Patriot, one of several accounts that targeted specific communities in crucial swing states like Michigan, Ohio and Iowa with messaging.

The accounts also appeared to capitalize on other divisive American issues that emerged after the 2016 election.

Some Instagram accounts pretended to be liberal, feminist groups as fallout from the #MeToo movement, which has exposed sexual misconduct allegations against high-profile public figures. Other accounts targeted conservative women with posts that criticized abortions.

“I don’t need feminism, because real feminism is about equal opportunity and respect for women. NOT about abortions, free birth control ….” a meme on one account read.

The accounts varied in how often they posted, the size of their following and the traction the posts received. But they carried the hallmarks of a Russian-backed online disinformation campaign, Kim said.

“They’re clearly adapting to current affairs,” Kim said. “Targeting both sides with messages is very unique to Russia.”

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Harriet Morris in Moscow contributed to this report.