With anxiety about the economy bubbling up on Wall Street and at campaign rallies around the country, the government reported on Friday that employers added 242,000 workers in February, a hefty increase that highlighted the labor market’s steady gains.

“We’ve got a real strong job market going,” said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust. “It does suggest that fears about a U.S. recession have been greatly overdone.”

Four years ago, at this point in the last presidential election cycle, the jobless rate was 8.3 percent and the economic recovery was in a relatively early stage. Then, worries centered on rising gas prices, deep consumer debt and government layoffs.

Now, the recovery is in its seventh year, the unemployment rate has dropped sharply to 4.9 percent and the private sector has chalked up 72 months of uninterrupted job gains, the longest streak on record. Oil prices may still be causing ulcers, but this time it is primarily producers who are feeling the pain, because prices have plunged.