Employment March 2011

Transmission of material in this release is embargoed until

USDL-11-0271

8:30 a.m. (EST) Friday, March 4, 2011

Technical information:Household data: (202) 691-6378 • cpsinfo@bls.gov • www.bls.gov/cpsEstablishment data: (202) 691-6555 • cesinfo@bls.gov • www.bls.gov/cesMedia contact: (202) 691-5902 • PressOffice@bls.gov

T

HE

E

MPLOYMENT

S

ITUATION

–

F

EBRUARY

2011

Nonfarm payroll employment

increased by 192,000 in February, and the

unemployment rate

waslittle changed at 8.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred inmanufacturing, construction, professional and business services, health care, and transportation andwarehousing.

-1000-800-600-400-2000200400600

Feb-09 May-09 Aug-09 Nov-09 Feb-10 May-10 Aug-10 Nov-10 Feb-11

Thousands

Chart 2. Nonfarm payroll employment over-the-monthchange, seasonally adjusted, February 2009 –February 2011

Percent

4.05.06.07.08.09.010.011.0

Feb-09 May-09 Aug-09 Nov-09 Feb-10 May-10 Aug-10 Nov-10 Feb-11

Chart 1. Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted,February 2009 – February 2011

Household Survey Data

The number of

unemployed persons

(13.7 million) and the

unemployment rate

(8.9 percent) changedlittle in February. The labor force was about unchanged over the month. The jobless rate was down by0.9 percentage point since November 2010. (See table A-1.)Among the

major worker groups

, the unemployment rates for adult men (8.7 percent), adult women(8.0 percent), teenagers (23.9 percent), whites (8.0 percent), blacks (15.3 percent), and Hispanics (11.6percent) showed little or no change in February. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.8 percent, not season-ally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

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The number of

job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs

,

at 8.3 million, continued totrend down in February and has fallen by 1.2 million over the past 12 months. The number of

long-termunemployed

(those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was 6.0 million and accounted for 43.9 percent of theunemployed. (See tables A-11 and A-12.)Both the

civilian labor force participation rate

,

at 64.2 percent, and the

employment-populationratio

,

at 58.4 percent, were unchanged in February. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed

part time for economic reasons

(sometimes referred to as involun-tary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 8.3 million in February. These individuals wereworking part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-timejob. (See table A-8.)In February, 2.7 million persons were

marginally attached to the labor force

, up from 2.5 million ayear earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force,wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. Theywere not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding thesurvey. (See table A-16.)Among the marginally attached, there were 1.0 million

discouraged workers

in February, a decrease of 184,000 from a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are personsnot currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.7million persons marginally attached to the labor force in February had not searched for work in the 4weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (Seetable A-16.)

Establishment Survey Data

Total

nonfarm payroll employment

rose by 192,000 in February. Job gains occurred in manufacturing,construction, and several service-providing industries. Since a recent low in February 2010, total payrollemployment has grown by 1.3 million, or an average of 106,000 per month. (See table B-1.)

Manufacturing

employment rose by 33,000 in February. Almost all of the gain occurred in durablegoods industries, including machinery (+9,000) and fabricated metal products (+7,000). Manufacturinghas added 195,000 jobs since its most recent trough in December 2009; durable goods manufacturingadded 233,000 jobs during this period.

Construction

employment grew by 33,000 in February, following a decline of 22,000 in January thatmay have reflected severe winter weather. Within construction, specialty trade contractors accounted for the bulk of the February job gain (+28,000).Employment in the service-providing sector continued to expand in February, led by a gain of 47,000 in

professional and business services

. Employment services added 29,000 jobs, and employment rose by7,000 in management and technical consulting. Within employment services, the number of jobs intemporary help services edged up over the month.

Health care

employment continued to increase in February (+34,000). Over the prior 12 months, healthcare had added 260,000 jobs, or an average of 22,000 jobs per month.

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Transportation and warehousing

employment increased by 22,000 in February, with half of that gainin truck transportation (+11,000).Employment in both

state

and

local government

edged down over the month. Local government haslost 377,000 jobs since its peak in September 2008.The

average workweek for all employees

on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.2 hours inFebruary. The manufacturing workweek for all employees rose by 0.1 hour to 40.5 hours, while factoryovertime rose by 0.2 hour to 3.3 hours. The average workweek for

production and nonsupervisory

employees

on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1 hour to 33.5 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)In February,

average hourly earnings

for all employees

on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 1cent to $22.87. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 1.7 percent. InFebruary, average hourly earnings of private-sector

production and nonsupervisory

employees

wereunchanged at $19.33. (See tables B-3 and B-8.)The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised from +121,000 to +152,000,and the change for January was revised from +36,000 to +63,000.

The Employment Situation for March is scheduled to be released on Friday, April 1, 2011, at 8:30a.m. (EDT).