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Bureau of Labor Statistics Washington, D.C. 20212
Technical information:Household data: (202) 691-6378 USDL 09-0224http://www.bls.gov/cps/ Establishment data: (202) 691-6555 Transmission of material in this releasehttp://www.bls.gov/ces/ is embargoed until 8:30 A.M. (EST),Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Friday, March 6, 2009.
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: FEBRUARY 2009
Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall sharply in February (-651,000), and the unemploy-ment rate rose from 7.6 to 8.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Laborreported today. Payroll employment has declined by 2.6 million in the past 4 months. In February, joblosses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.Unemployment (Household Survey Data)The number of unemployed persons increased by 851,000 to 12.5 million in February, and the un-employment rate rose to 8.1 percent. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons hasincreased by about 5.0 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 3.3 percentage points. (Seetable A-1.)The unemployment rate continued to trend upward in February for adult men (8.1 percent), adultwomen (6.7 percent), whites (7.3 percent), blacks (13.4 percent), and Hispanics (10.9 percent). The jobless rate for teenagers was little changed at 21.6 percent. The unemployment rate for Asians was 6.9percent in February, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
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United StatesDepartmentof Labor
Chart 1. Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted,March 2006 –February 2009
4.04.55.05.56.06.57.07.58.08.59.09.510.0
PercentMillions
Chart 2. Nonfarm payroll employment, seasonally adjusted,March 2006 –February 2009
200920092007200720082008
122.0124.0126.0128.0130.0132.0134.0136.0138.0140.0142.0
20072007 20082008 20092009
 
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Table A. Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
HOUSEHOLD DATA
Civilian labor force …………….…………154,650154,648154,447153,716154,214498Employment …………………….………145,299144,046143,338142,099141,748-351Unemployment ……………….…………9,35010,60211,10811,61612,467851Not in labor force ………………….………79,46080,17780,58881,02380,699-324All workers ……………….……………....6.06.97.27.68.10.5Adult men …………………....……...……5.86.87.27.68.1.5Adult women ………….…………………5.05.65.96.26.7.5Teenagers ………….………………...…19.720.720.820.821.6.8White ……….………….…...……………5.46.36.66.97.3.4Black or African American
 
………….…10.711.511.912.613.4.8Hispanic or Latino ethnicity ………..……7.88.99.29.710.91.2
ESTABLISHMENT DATA
Nonfarm employment ……….……...………137,004 135,727 135,074p 134,419p 133,768p -651Goods-producing
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…...…...………………21,343 20,803 20,532p 20,153p 19,877p -276Construction ..…...…………….………7,170 6,949 6,841p 6,723p 6,619p -104Manufacturing …………………....……13,388 13,062 12,902p 12,645p 12,477p -168Service-providing
1
………...……..……115,661 114,924 114,542p 114,266p 113,891p -375Retail trade
2
…...…………….…..…15,331 15,127 15,038p 14,999p 14,960p -40Professional and business service ….....17,730 17,485 17,356p 17,222p 17,042p -180Education and health services …..…….18,932 19,035 19,080p 19,123p 19,149p 26Leisure and hospitality …...…………….13,452 13,348 13,304p 13,275p 13,242p -33Government ………...…………………22,543 22,538 22,532p 22,563p 22,572p 9Total private ……...…………...……………33.6 33.4 33.3p 33.3p 33.3p 0.0Manufacturing …………….……...………40.8 40.2 39.9p 39.8p 39.6p -.2Overtime ……...………………..…….3.6 3.2 2.9p 2.8p 2.6p -.2Total private ……...………………….……106.1 104.1 103.2p 102.6p 101.9p -0.7Average hourly earnings, total private …...$18.16 $18.34 $18.40p $18.44p $18.47p $0.03Average weekly earnings, total private …….610.90 612.55 612.72p 614.05p 615.05p 1.00Feb. 2009III 2008IV 2008Dec. 2008Jan. 2009p = preliminary.Jan.-Feb.changeHours of work 
31
Includes other industries, not shown separately.
2
Quarterly averages and the over-the-month change are calculated using unrounded data.
3
Data relate to private production and nonsupervisory workers.CategoryQuarterly averagesMonthly dataIndexes of aggregate weekly hours (2002=100)
3
Earnings
3
EmploymentLabor force statusUnemployment rates
 
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Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobsincreased by 716,000 to 7.7 million in February. This measure has grown by 3.8 million in the last 12months. (See table A-8.)The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 270,000 to2.9 million in February. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed was up by 1.6million. (See table A-9.)Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)The civilian labor force participation rate was about unchanged at 65.6 percent. The employment-population ratio, at 60.3 percent in February, continued to trend down. The ratio has declined by 2.4percentage points over the year. (See table A-1.)In February, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons (sometimes refer-red to as involuntary part-time workers) rose by 787,000, reaching 8.6 million. The number of suchworkers rose by 3.7 million over the past 12 months. This category includes persons who would like towork full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they wereunable to find full-time jobs. (See table A-5.)Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)About 2.1 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached to the labor force inFebruary, 466,000 more than a year earlier. These individuals wanted and were available for work andhad looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed becausethey had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Among the marginally attached,there were 731,000 discouraged workers in February, up by 335,000 from a year earlier. Discouragedworkers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.The other 1.3 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in February had not searched forwork in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsi-bilities. (See table A-13.)Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)
 
Total nonfarm payroll employment dropped by 651,000 in February. Since the recession began inDecember 2007, about 4.4 million jobs have been lost, with more than half (2.6 million) of the decreaseoccurring in the last 4 months. In February, employment declined in most major industry sectors, withthe largest losses occurring in professional and business services, manufacturing, and construction.Health care continued to add jobs over the month. (See table B-1.)Employment in professional and business services fell by 180,000 in February. The temporary helpindustry lost 78,000 jobs over the month. Since December 2007, temporary help employment has de-clined by 686,000, or 27 percent. In February, job declines also occurred in services to buildings anddwellings (-17,000), architectural and engineering services (-16,000), and business support services(-12,000).Widespread job losses continued in manufacturing in February (-168,000). The majority of thedecline occurred in durable goods industries (-132,000), with the largest decreases in fabricated metal
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