Washington, DC...Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 192,000 in February, and the unemployment
rate was little changed at 8.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics re-
ported today. Job gains occurred in manufacturing, construction, professional and
business services, health care, and transportation and warehousing.

Household Survey Data

The number of unemployed persons (13.7 million) and the unemployment rate (8.9
percent) changed little in February. The labor force was about unchanged over
the month. The jobless rate was down by 0.9 percentage point since November 2010.
(See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (8.7 percent),
adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (23.9 percent), whites (8.0 percent), blacks
(15.3 percent), and Hispanics (11.6 percent) showed little or no change in February.
The jobless rate for Asians was 6.8 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables
A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, at 8.3 million,
continued to trend down in February and has fallen by 1.2 million over the past 12
months. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more)
was 6.0 million and accounted for 43.9 percent of the unemployed. (See tables A-11
and A-12.)

Both the civilian labor force participation rate, at 64.2 percent, and the employ-
ment-population ratio, at 58.4 percent, were unchanged in February. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred
to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 8.3 million in
February. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut
back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)

In February, 2.7 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, up
from 2.5 million a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) These
individuals were not in the labor force, 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 preceding the
survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.0 million discouraged workers in February,
a decrease of 184,000 from a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.)
Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no
jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.7 million persons marginally attached to
the labor force in February had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the sur-
vey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 192,000 in February. Job gains occurred in
manufacturing, construction, and several service-providing industries. Since a recent
low in February 2010, total payroll employment has grown by 1.3 million, or an average
of 106,000 per month. (See table B-1.)

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 pro-
ducts (+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).

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 govern-
ment 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. The average work-
week for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased
by 0.1 hour to 33.5 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)

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 pro-
duction and nonsupervisory employees were unchanged at $19.33. (See tables B-3 and
B-8.)

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 Employment Situation for March is scheduled to be released on Friday, April 1, 2011,
at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).