“The worst of the market fears in the U.S. erupted after the survey week” by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said Josh Wright, chief economist at iCIMS. “This will be the calm before the storm.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said February’s strong showing is likely to reverse by the time the March numbers are released, and the shift will become apparent over the next few weeks. “I do expect the virus to have an impact on the jobs data beginning next month,” he said. “It will likely show up in somewhat higher claims for unemployment insurance by late this month.”

“What it shows you is, prior to the economic impacts of the coronavirus, it looked like the labor market was on solid footing, and maybe even starting to accelerate a little bit,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at the