US Economy Added 236,000 Jobs in February

The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) released the February jobs report earlier this morning.

According to the BLS, the national unemployment declined to 7.7% (from 7.9%) in February as the US economy added an estimated 236,000 nonfarm payroll jobs.

This is the lowest national unemployment rate that the United State has posted since January of 2009 (7.6%).

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Let's break down the numbers a little bit more.

In February, the Civilian noninstitutional population increased from 244,663,000 to 244,828,000 (total gain of 165,000 people). The civilian labor force, on the other hand, dropped from 155,654,000 to 155,524,000. The civilian labor force is the total number of people who either have a job or are actively seeking a job.

The labor force participation rate, which we arrive at by dividing the civilian labor force by the civilian noninstitutional population, dropped 0.1% to 63.5% in February.

The total number of employed people in the United States increased from 143,322,000 to 143,492,000 (total gain of 170,000 people) in February.

The total number of unemployed people in the United States decreased from 12,332,000 to 12,032,000 in February, for a total drop of 300,000.

However, the number of people NOT in the labor force increased from 89,008,000 to 89,304,000 in February, for a total gain of 296,000 people. This would people, for instance, who have given up looking for a job and are no longer technically "unemployed", people who have taken part-time work but want a full-time job, etc.

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A few more interesting numbers that I pulled from today's report:

-the number of people who have part time jobs for noneconomic reasons jumped by 444,000 to 18,908,000 in February

-the unemployment rate for teenagers (16 to 19 years) jumped 1.7% to 25.1% in February

Source: BLS.gov - The Employment Situation - February 2013

Source: Historical Unemployment Rates

Filed under: General Knowledge