175k Nonfarm Payroll Jobs Added in February

The "BLS" (Bureau of Labor Statistics) released their February Employment Situation summary earlier today.

175,000 non-farm payroll jobs were added in February while the national unemployment rate ticked higher to 6.7%. Economists had been expecting that the unemployment rate would stay the same (6.6%) and that 149,000 non-farm payroll jobs would be added. Bank of America and Deutsche Bank had been even more pessimistic, as they were predicting that 115,000-120,000 non-farm payroll jobs would be added.

The DJIA and S+P 500 cheered the jobs report, with the S+P 500 hitting yet another all-time high.

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Let's break down the numbers a bit more.

247,085,000 Americans counted themselves as part of the civilian noninstitutional population in February, up 170,000 from the month before. This includes everyone over the age of 16 who is not an inmate of an institution and who is not on active duty in the Armed Forces.

155,724,000 Americans were part of the civilian labor force in February, up 264,000 from the month before. This includes everyone in the civilian noninstitutional population who either has a job or is actively looking for a job.

When we divide 155,724,000 by 247,085,000, we are left with a labor participation rate of 63%, which was unchanged from January.

145,266,000 Americans were counted as being employed in February, up 42,000 from the month before. The number of unemployed Americans, on the other hand, increased by 223,000 to 10,459,000. This leaves us with an employment rate of 6.7%.

The number of Americans not in the labor force (meaning that they are not working and not actively looking for work) dropped by 94,000 to 91,361,000 in February.

The unemployment rate for adult men increased by 6.2% to 6.4% in February, while the unemployment rate for adult women remained unchanged at 5.9%.

The unemployment rate for teenagers increased from 20.7% to 21.4%.

The number of Americans who have been unemployed for over 27 weeks increased by 203,000 to 3,849,000 in February.

The U-6 unemployment rate, which is an alternative measure of labor underutilization, fell 0.1% to 12.6% in February.

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Source: BLS.gov - February Employment Situation Summary


Filed under: General Knowledge