EconoIndicators / Employment Situation

Employment Situation At a Glance

Total Employment: 145,993 million
Nonfarm Payroll Employment: 137,993 million
Monthly Change: Down 63,000
Unemployed Persons: 7,381 million
Unemployment Rate: 4.8%
Change: Down 0.1%

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THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: FEBRUARY 2008

Nonfarm payroll employment edged down in February (-63,000), and the
unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.8 percent, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment
fell in manufacturing, construction, and retail trade. Job growth continued
in health care and in food services. Average hourly earnings rose by 5 cents,
or 0.3 percent, over the month.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The number of unemployed persons (7.4 million) and the unemployment rate
(4.8 percent) were essentially unchanged in February. Over the month, the
unemployment rates for adult men (4.3 percent), adult women (4.2 percent),
teenagers (16.6 percent), whites (4.3 percent), and Hispanics (6.2 percent)
showed little or no change. The jobless rate for blacks fell to 8.3 percent,
in line with the average rate for 2007. The unemployment rate for Asians was
3.0 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

Both the civilian labor force, at 153.4 million, and the labor force par-
ticipation rate, at 65.9 percent, declined in February. Total employment
(146.0 million) and the employment-population ratio (62.7 percent) were little
changed over the month. (See table A-1.)

Table A. Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
_______________________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Quarterly | |
| averages | Monthly data | Jan.-
Category |_________________|__________________________| Feb.
| | | | | | change
| III | IV | Dec. | Jan. | Feb. |
| 2007 | 2007 | 2007 | 2008 | 2008 |
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
HOUSEHOLD DATA | Labor force status
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Civilian labor force ….| 153,191| 153,667| 153,866| 153,824| 153,374| -450
Employment …………| 146,019| 146,291| 146,211| 146,248| 145,993| -255
Unemployment ……….| 7,172| 7,375| 7,655| 7,576| 7,381| -195
Not in labor force ……| 79,019| 79,270| 79,290| 78,792| 79,436| 644
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Unemployment rates
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
All workers ………….| 4.7| 4.8| 5.0| 4.9| 4.8| -0.1
Adult men ………….| 4.2| 4.3| 4.4| 4.4| 4.3| -.1
Adult women ………..| 4.1| 4.2| 4.4| 4.2| 4.2| .0
Teenagers ………….| 15.8| 16.4| 17.1| 18.0| 16.6| -1.4
White ……………..| 4.2| 4.3| 4.4| 4.4| 4.3| -.1
Black or African | | | | | |
American …………| 8.0| 8.6| 9.0| 9.2| 8.3| -.9
Hispanic or Latino | | | | | |
ethnicity ………..| 5.7| 5.9| 6.3| 6.3| 6.2| -.1
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
ESTABLISHMENT DATA | Employment
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Nonfarm employment…….| 137,758| 138,031| 138,078|p138,056|p137,993| p-63
Goods-producing (1)….| 22,185| 22,042| 21,976| p21,922| p21,833| p-89
Construction ……..| 7,609| 7,521| 7,465| p7,440| p7,401| p-39
Manufacturing …….| 13,850| 13,788| 13,772| p13,741| p13,689| p-52
Service-providing (1)..| 115,573| 115,989| 116,102|p116,134|p116,160| p26
Retail trade (2)…| 15,493| 15,490| 15,488| p15,488| p15,454| p-34
Professional and | | | | | |
business services .| 17,979| 18,093| 18,131| p18,122| p18,102| p-20
Education and health | | | | | |
services ……….| 18,411| 18,527| 18,568| p18,617| p18,647| p30
Leisure and | | | | | |
hospitality …….| 13,507| 13,622| 13,635| p13,646| p13,667| p21
Government ……….| 22,203| 22,291| 22,333| p22,337| p22,375| p38
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Hours of work (3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ………..| 33.8| 33.8| 33.8| p33.7| p33.7| p0.0
Manufacturing ………| 41.4| 41.2| 41.1| p41.1| p41.1| p.0
Overtime …………| 4.2| 4.1| 4.0| p4.0| p4.0| p.0
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Indexes of aggregate weekly hours (2002=100)(3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ………..| 107.5| 107.7| 107.8| p107.4| p107.3| p-0.1
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Earnings (3)
|_____________________________________________________
Average hourly earnings, | | | | | |
total private ………| $17.52| $17.64| $17.70| p$17.75| p$17.80| p$0.05
Average weekly earnings, | | | | | |
total private ………| 592.07| 596.34| 598.26| p598.18| p599.86| p1.68
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________

1 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.
p = preliminary.

- 2 -

The number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons, at 4.9 mil-
lion in February, was little changed over the month but was up by 637,000 over
the past 12 months. This category includes persons who indicated that they
would like to work full time but were working part time because their hours had
been cut back or they were unable to find full-time jobs. (See table A-5.)

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

About 1.6 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached
to the labor force in February. These individuals wanted and were available for
work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not
counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks pre-
ceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there were 396,000 discouraged
workers in February, about the same as a year earlier. Discouraged workers were
not currently looking for work specifically because they believed no jobs were
available for them. The other 1.2 million persons marginally attached to the
labor force in February had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the
survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See
table A-13.)

Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)

Total nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-63,000) in February, with pri-
vate-sector employment declining by 101,000. Nonfarm payroll employment was
little changed in December (41,000) and January (-22,000). Over the month, job
losses occurred in manufacturing, construction, and retail trade. Health care
and food services continued to add jobs. (See table B-1.)

Manufacturing employment continued to decline in February (-52,000), bringing
losses over the past 12 months to 299,000. Most of the February decline was con-
centrated in durable goods manufacturing, as motor vehicles and parts (-13,000),
furniture and related products (-6,000), and wood products (-5,000) lost jobs.
Within nondurable goods, employment fell in printing and related support activi-
ties (-5,000).

Employment in construction decreased by 39,000 in February, and has fallen
by 331,000 since its most recent peak in September 2006. During this period,
residential specialty trades lost 209,000 jobs, while residential building lost
137,000 jobs.

In February, employment in retail trade declined by 34,000. Job losses occur-
red in department stores (-11,000), building material and garden supply stores
(-7,000), and automobile dealers (-6,000). Wholesale trade employment edged down
in February, with the durable goods component declining by 9,000.

Professional and business services employment was little changed for the second
month in a row; job gains had averaged 26,000 per month in 2007. In February, tem-
porary help services lost 28,000 jobs; employment in the industry has declined by
117,000 since the most recent peak in December 2006.

In financial activities, credit intermediation employment continued to decline
and has fallen by 116,000 since a peak in October 2006. In February, real estate
employment also continued to trend down; since June 2006, the industry has lost
34,000 jobs.

- 3 -

Health care employment continued to grow in February (36,000). Within health
care, over-the-month job gains occurred in hospitals (17,000) and in ambulatory
health care services (15,000), which includes offices of physicians. Over the
past 12 months, health care has added 360,000 jobs.

Food services employment continued to trend upward in February. From November
through February, food services added an average of 12,000 jobs per month, compared
with an average gain of 28,000 jobs for the 12-month period ending in October.

Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)

In February, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on
private nonfarm payrolls held at 33.7 hours, seasonally adjusted. Both the manu-
facturing workweek, at 41.1 hours, and factory overtime, at 4.0 hours, were un-
changed over the month. (See table B-2.)

The index of aggregate weekly hours of production and nonsupervisory workers
on nonfarm payrolls declined by 0.1 percent in February to 107.3 (2002=100). The
manufacturing index fell by 0.5 percent to 93.1. (See table B-5.)

Hourly and Weekly Earnings (Establishment Survey Data)

In February, average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers
on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 5 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $17.80, season-
ally adjusted. This followed gains of 6 cents in December and 5 cents in January.
Average weekly earnings rose by 0.3 percent in February to $599.86. Over the past
12 months, both average hourly earnings and weekly earnings rose by 3.7 percent.
(See table B-3.)

Statement of

Keith Hall
Commissioner
Bureau of Labor Statistics

before the

Joint Economic Committee

UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Friday, March 7, 2008

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the February labor
market data that we released this morning.

Nonfarm payroll employment edged down in February (-63,000),
and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.8 percent.
Private-sector employment declined by 101,000. Job losses occurred
in manufacturing, construction, and retail trade. Employment growth
continued in health care and in food services.

Manufacturing employment fell by 52,000 over the month.
Over the past 12 months, this industry has shed 299,000 jobs. In
February, employment declined in motor vehicles, printing, and
semiconductors, as well as in wood products and furniture–two
housing-sensitive industries. Factory hours and overtime were
unchanged.

Elsewhere in the goods-producing sector, construction lost
39,000 jobs over the month. Construction employment has fallen
by 331,000 since peaking in September 2006. Over this period,
job losses were concentrated in residential building and in
residential specialty trades; employment in the nonresidential
components of construction changed little on net.

In the service-providing sector, retail employment was down
by 34,000 in February. Job losses occurred in department stores,
auto dealers, and building and garden supply stores. Over the
past 12 months, retail employment has shown no net growth.
Within professional and business services, employment in the
temporary help industry fell by 28,000 over the month and by
117,000 since the most recent peak in December 2006.

Health care employment continued to expand in February,
rising by 36,000. Employment in food services continued to trend
up, although growth in this industry has slowed in the past 4
months. Most other private service-providing industries showed
little employment change in February.

Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory
workers in the private sector rose by 5 cents over the month and
have increased by 3.7 percent over the past 12 months.

Turning now to the labor market data from the survey of
households, the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged over
the month at 4.8 percent. A year earlier, the jobless rate was
4.5 percent. Over the year, the number of unemployed persons
rose by 544,000 to 7.4 million.

The increase in unemployment over the past 12 months was
concentrated among persons who lost jobs and had no expectation
of being recalled. Since February 2007, the number of these job
losers increased by 450,000 to 2.9 million; their share of total
unemployment rose from 35.4 to 39.0 percent. The number of
persons unemployed for other reasons, such as voluntarily leaving
a job or entering the labor market, showed little change over
this period.

In terms of unemployment duration, 35.6 percent of the
unemployed had been searching for work for less than 5 weeks in
February, while 17.5 percent were still searching after 27 or
more weeks. These proportions were little changed from a year
earlier.

The number of individuals in the labor force fell by 450,000
in February to 153.4 million, and labor force participation
declined to 65.9 percent of the population. The labor force
participation rate has been at or near 66.0 percent since last
spring.

The employment-to-population ratio was 62.7 percent in
February. This measure remains well below its recent peak of
63.4 percent in December 2006. Among the employed, the number of
persons working part time who would prefer to be working full
time has been growing. In February, there were 4.9 million such
workers, an increase of about 637,000 from a year earlier.

Among persons not in the labor force, about 1.6 million were
marginally attached to the labor force. The marginally attached
are individuals who are not currently looking for work, but want
and are available for work and have searched for a job sometime
in the prior 12 months. The number of discouraged workers, a
subset of the marginally attached who believe no jobs are
available for them, was 396,000 in February, little changed from
a year earlier.

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment edged down in
February, with job losses in manufacturing, construction, and
retail trade. The unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at
4.8 percent.