{"id":54763,"date":"2018-03-09T07:19:13","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T15:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=54763"},"modified":"2018-03-09T07:19:13","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T15:19:13","slug":"economy-adds-313000-jobs-in-february-unemployment-holds-steady-at-4-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=54763","title":{"rendered":"Economy Adds 313,000 Jobs in February & Unemployment Holds Steady at 4.1%"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington, DC…Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 313,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in construction, retail trade, professional and business services, manufacturing, financial activities, and mining.<\/p>\n

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\r\nHousehold Survey Data\r\n\r\nIn February, the unemployment rate was 4.1 percent for the fifth consecutive month,\r\nand the number of unemployed persons was essentially unchanged at 6.7 million.\r\n(See table A-1.)\r\n\r\nAmong the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for Blacks declined to 6.9\r\npercent in February, while the jobless rates for adult men (3.7 percent), adult\r\nwomen (3.8 percent), teenagers (14.4 percent), Whites (3.7 percent), Asians (2.9\r\npercent), and Hispanics (4.9 percent) showed little change. (See tables A-1, A-2,\r\nand A-3.)\r\n\r\nThe number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially\r\nunchanged at 1.4 million in February and accounted for 20.7 percent of the unemployed.\r\nOver the year, the number of long-term unemployed was down by 369,000. (See table A-12.)\r\n\r\nThe civilian labor force rose by 806,000 in February. The labor force participation\r\nrate increased by 0.3 percentage point over the month to 63.0 percent but changed\r\nlittle over the year. (See table A-1.)\r\n\r\nIn February, total employment, as measured by the household survey, rose by 785,000.\r\nThe employment-population ratio increased by 0.3 percentage point to 60.4 percent\r\nin February, following 4 months of little change. (See table A-1.)\r\n\r\nThe number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred\r\nto as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed at 5.2 million in February.\r\nThese individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part\r\ntime because their hours had been cut or because they were unable to find full-time\r\njobs. (See table A-8.)\r\n\r\nIn February, 1.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, little\r\ndifferent from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals\r\nwere not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for\r\na job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because\r\nthey had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)\r\n\r\nAmong the marginally attached, there were 373,000 discouraged workers in February,\r\ndown by 149,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged\r\nworkers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are\r\navailable for them. The remaining 1.2 million persons marginally attached to the labor\r\nforce in February had not searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or\r\nfamily responsibilities. (See table A-16.)\r\n\r\nEstablishment Survey Data\r\n\r\nTotal nonfarm payroll employment rose by 313,000 in February. Job gains occurred in\r\nconstruction, retail trade, professional and business services, manufacturing,\r\nfinancial activities, and mining. (See table B-1.)\r\n\r\nIn February, construction employment increased by 61,000, with gains in specialty\r\ntrade contractors (+38,000) and construction of buildings (+16,000). Construction\r\nhas added 185,000 jobs over the past 4 months.\r\n\r\nRetail trade employment increased by 50,000 over the month. Within the industry,\r\nemployment rose in general merchandise stores (+18,000) and in clothing and clothing\r\naccessories stores (+15,000). However, over the past 4 months, which traditionally\r\nsee the bulk of the holiday hiring and layoff, employment in these industries has\r\nchanged little on net. Elsewhere in retail trade, building material and garden supply\r\nstores added jobs over the month (+10,000).\r\n\r\nEmployment in professional and business services increased by 50,000 in February and\r\nhas risen by 495,000 over the year. Employment in temporary help services edged up\r\nover the month (+27,000).\r\n\r\nManufacturing added 31,000 jobs in February. Within the industry, employment rose\r\nin transportation equipment (+8,000), fabricated metal products (+6,000), machinery\r\n(+6,000), and primary metals (+4,000). Over the past year, manufacturing has added\r\n224,000 jobs.\r\n\r\nFinancial activities added 28,000 jobs over the month, with gains in credit\r\nintermediation and related activities (+8,000); insurance carriers and related\r\nactivities (+8,000); and securities, commodity contracts, and investments (+5,000).\r\nOver the year, financial activities has added 143,000 jobs.\r\n\r\nEmployment in mining rose by 9,000 in February, with most of the increase in support\r\nactivities for mining (+7,000). Since a recent low in October 2016, mining has added\r\n69,000 jobs.\r\n\r\nEmployment in health care continued to trend up in February (+19,000), with a gain\r\nof 9,000 in hospitals. Health care has added 290,000 jobs over the past year. \r\n\r\nEmployment in other major industries, including wholesale trade, transportation and\r\nwarehousing, information, leisure and hospitality, and government, showed little\r\nchange over the month.\r\n\r\nThe average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 0.1 hour\r\nto 34.5 hours in February. In manufacturing, the workweek increased by 0.2 hour to\r\n41.0 hours, while overtime edged up by 0.1 hour to 3.6 hours. The average workweek\r\nfor production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased\r\nby 0.2 hour to 33.8 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)\r\n\r\nIn February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls\r\nrose by 4 cents to $26.75, following a 7-cent gain in January. Over the year,\r\naverage hourly earnings have increased by 68 cents, or 2.6 percent. Average hourly\r\nearnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 6\r\ncents to $22.40 in February. (See tables B-3 and B-8.) \r\n\r\nThe change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised up from\r\n+160,000 to +175,000, and the change for January was revised up from +200,000 to\r\n+239,000. With these revisions, employment gains in December and January combined\r\nwere 54,000 more than previously reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional\r\nreports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published\r\nestimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.) After revisions, job\r\ngains have averaged 242,000 over the last 3 months.\r\n\r\n_____________\r\nThe Employment Situation for March is scheduled to be released on Friday, April 6,\r\n2018, at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\n