Hiring in the manufacturing sector in February rose to the highest level since before the Great Recession began, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Manufacturing hires rose to 380,000 in the month, the most of any month since November of 2007, the month before the recession officially began.

Manufacturers have added more than 200,000 jobs in the past year as the sector has recovered from the effects of a rising dollar between 2015 and 2016 that made their products more expensive to overseas buyers.

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Although monthly hiring has picked up, there are still more than a million fewer manufacturing jobs today than there were prior to the recession.

Overall hiring was mostly in line with the past few months at 5.5 million in February.

Friday’s numbers come from a monthly report that includes data on gross hiring and firing. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, lags the monthly payrolls report by a month but is valued because its level of detail can help investors and policymakers understand labor market trends.

The JOLTS report also showed total job openings mostly steady at 6 million.

There are 1.1 unemployed workers for each advertised job opening, according to Friday's release. That ratio is lower than it was even before the recession and suggests that the labor market is becoming more favorable to workers.