PATRICIA COHEN

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

The last time the U.S. economy registered such a prolonged stretch of impressive job creation, Facebook didn’t exist and Beyoncé was still a member of Destiny’s Child. For all of 2015, the nation added 2.65 million jobs, capping a two-year, back-to-back gain that was the best since the late 1990s, the government reported Friday.

The nation’s labor market capped off a year of steady growth with an impressive sprint as employers added 292,000 workers to their payrolls in December, the government said Friday.

But what could a tax-the-rich plan actually achieve? As it turns out, quite a lot, experts say.

The Education Department, despite a crackdown against what it calls “bad actors,” continues to hand over tens of millions of dollars every month to for-profit schools that have been accused of predatory behavior, substandard practices or illegal activity.