February was a great month for the millennial labor market

Today we learned the U.S. economy added 295,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent.

How did millennials fare?

Older ones aged 25-34 saw their employment levels climb by 108,000, and experienced a five-basis-point decrease in their unemployment rate, to 5.4 percent.

It was the lowest level for this group since May 2008.

At the same time, 25- to 34-year-olds saw a slight drop in their labor force participation rate—approximately 56,000 25-34 year-olds dropped out of the labor force.

But the overall trend from 2014 remains positive.

Meanwhile, there were 103,000 newly employed 20- to 24-year-olds in February. Combined with January’s increase of 164,000, this was the second-best two-month increase in overall employment of the decade for this group:

This group saw a seven-point surge in their labor force participation rate, to 71 percent, suggesting they felt better about their job prospects.

Their unemployment rate climbed slightly, to 10.0 percent from 9.8 percent, but this almost certainly more of a reflection of their joining the labor force in larger numbers.

Overall there were 103,000 more 20- to 24-year-olds with jobs in February. The 267,000 gain in employed 20-24 year-olds from January and February is the best two-month jump since 2011.

“While there are a lot of risks out there, it feels less risky than in the past 25 to 30 years,” Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, said before Friday’s release according to the New York Times   . “It feels really, really good out there.”

Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.