Pages

Friday, March 4, 2011

U.S. employment up & unemployment little changed in February

From January to February, employment in the U.S. increased by 816,000 to reach 129 million people. Normally employment increases about 624,000 from January to February, thus employment rose 192,000 more than expected.

The improvements occurred in several industries, including manufacturing, construction, professional and business services, and health care. Losses occurred in state and local government. (For more details on the changes by industry, see the full press release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

The unemployment rate was essentially unchanged in February at 8.9 percent. A year ago the national unemployment rate was 9.7 percent.

* Employment is total nonfarm employment from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) Survey.

No comments: