Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 192,000 in February, and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.9%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in manufacturing, construction, professional and business services, health care and transportation. Revisions also added 58,000 jobs added in the previous two months. 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 job gains are good news, but job growth has to sustain gains over 175,000 a month for at least 6 months (and gains over 250,000 would be much better) to begin to make a serious dent in the millions of jobs lost in the recession (weather likely restrained January job growth that showed up in the February figures if you take the average for the 2 months you get a gain of 127,500 jobs a month). Since a recent low in February 2010, total payroll employment has grown by 1.3 million, or an average of 106,000 per month. Approximately 125,000 jobs have to be added just to keep up with growth in the population. Until we are consistently adding 230,000+ jobs a months the employment picture is not improving strongly enough given the large number of recent job losses. Adding over 150,000 jobs a month is good, but more is needed to provide jobs for the large number of unemployed.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was 6.0 million and accounted for 43.9% of the unemployed. Decreasing the number of long term unemployed is a key measure, as significant gains are made it is a sign pointing to better economic conditions.
Manufacturing employment rose by 33,000 in February. Almost all of the gain occurred in durable goods industries, including machinery (+9,000) and fabricated metal products (+7,000). Manufacturing has added 195,000 jobs since its most recent trough in December 2009; durable goods manufacturing added 233,000 jobs during this period.
Construction employment grew by 33,000 in February, following a decline of 22,000 in January that may have reflected severe winter weather. Within construction, specialty trade contractors accounted for the bulk of the February job gain (+28,000).
Related: USA Economy Adds 151,000 Jobs in October 2010, and Revisions Add 110,000 More – USA Unemployment Rate Remains at 9.7% (Feb 2010) – USA Unemployment Rate Rises to 8.1% (Feb 2009), Highest Level Since 1983
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 by 7,000 in management and technical consulting. Within employment services, the number of jobs in temporary help services edged up over the month.
Health care employment continued to increase in February (+34,000). Over the prior 12 months, health care had added 260,000 jobs, or an average of 22,000 jobs per month. Transportation and warehousing employment increased by 22,000 in February, with half of that gain in truck transportation (+11,000).
Employment in both state and local government edged down over the month. Local government has lost 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 in February. The manufacturing workweek for all employees rose by 0.1 hour to 40.5 hours, while factory overtime rose by 0.2 hour to 3.3 hours.
In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 1 cent to $22.87. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 1.7 percent. In February, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees were unchanged at $19.33.