February 1995 Employment Situation

Historical release narrative reproduced from the official public-domain source. Statistical tables, standard technical appendices, administrative material and attendance rosters are omitted; formatting is adapted for reading. Figures retain the release's historical context and may have been revised. Consult the linked source for the complete document.

Employment continued to increase in February and unemployment returned to December levels, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The unemployment rate fell back to 5.4 percent; in January, the rate had been 5.7 percent.

Nonfarm payroll employment, as measured by the survey of employers, rose by 318,000, with substantial increases in services and retail trade and continued growth in manufacturing. Total employment, as measured by the household survey, also had a large gain. Average hourly earnings showed no change in February, following a marked rise in January.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The unemployment rate dropped by 0.3 percentage point to 5.4 percent in February, after rising by the same amount in January. At 7.2 million, the number of unemployed also was at the same level as in December. Since January 1994, the unemployment level has declined by 1.6 million and the jobless rate has fallen by 1.3 percentage points. (See table A-1.)

Adult men accounted for the bulk of the February decline in unemployment, just as they had accounted for much of the increase in the prior month. As a result, their unemployment rate (4.6 percent) was about the same as in December. Jobless rates for Hispanics (8.9 percent) and whites (4.7 percent) decreased, while the rates for adult women (4.8 percent), teenagers (17.6 percent), and blacks (10.1 percent) were little changed. (See tables A-1 and A-2.)

The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks or more decreased by 146,000 in February to 1.2 million. Since January 1994, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by about half a million. (See table A-5.)

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

Total employment rose by 486,000 to 125.1 million in February (seasonally adjusted). The number of employed persons has increased by 3.2 million since January 1994. After remaining flat for 3 months, the employment-population ratio--the proportion of the working-age population with jobs--increased slightly over the month to 63.2 percent, one full percentage point above the proportion in January 1994. (See table A-1.)

A total of 7.7 million workers (not seasonally adjusted), or 6.3 percent of all employed persons, held two or more jobs in February. A year earlier, 5.8 percent of the employed held more than one job. (See table A-8.)

At 132.3 million, seasonally adjusted, the civilian labor force was little changed in February, as was the labor force participation rate of 66.9 percent. Since January 1994, the labor force has increased by 1.7 million. (See table A-1.)

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

The number of persons with a marginal attachment to the labor force-- those who wanted and were available for work, but were no longer actively looking for jobs after having searched sometime in the past 12 months--was 1.7 million (not seasonally adjusted) in February. Of that total, those who were not looking because they believed that there were no jobs available for them--discouraged workers--numbered 439,000, about the same level as a year ago. (See table A-8.)

Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 318,000 in February to 115.6 million. Large increases in the services and retail trade industries accounted for the bulk of this gain, but there also was a continuation of growth in manufacturing jobs. Since hitting a low 3 years ago, payroll jobs have risen by 7-1/2 million. (See table B-1.)

The services industry added 191,000 jobs in February, the largest gain for the industry in nearly a year. A sizable share of this increase occurred in business services (73,000), mostly in personnel supply and computer services. Engineering and management services was particularly strong in February as well, and health services and motion pictures continued to add jobs. The return of more normal winter weather led to a resurgence of winter sports activity and thus a rebound in employment in amusement and recreation services.

Retail trade employment increased by 73,000 in February. Three- fourths of this job gain took place in eating and drinking places, which had shown a small decline in January. A notable advance occurred in automotive dealers and service stations; this industry has grown by 125,000 jobs over the past year. Wholesale trade employment continued its strong uptrend, adding 22,000 jobs in February, with its durable goods component accounting for most of the gain.

Manufacturing employment rose by 27,000 in February, slightly below the growth of recent months. The over-the-month increase was essentially limited to the durable goods sector, particularly fabricated metals, industrial machinery, electronic equipment, and transportation equipment. Among nondurable goods industries, only printing and publishing showed a large job gain. In contrast, employment in apparel fell substantially over the month, continuing its long-term decline.

The construction industry lost 32,000 jobs over the month on a seasonally adjusted basis, reflecting the shift from unusually mild weather in January to more normal winter conditions in February. In spite of this decline, construction employment was up by 314,000 over the past year. Elsewhere, transportation and public utilities resumed its employment advance after failing to add jobs in January. Government employment was little changed overall, although the Federal government continued downsizing, with a loss of 10,000 jobs in February. Federal payrolls have declined by 159,000 since the most recent peak in April 1992.

Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)

The average workweek for production or nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 0.4 hour to 34.5 hours (seasonally adjusted) in February, following an increase of 0.3 hour in the previous month. The manufacturing workweek edged down (by 0.1 hour) to a still very high 42.1 hours, and factory overtime held at a record 4.9 hours. The index of aggregate weekly hours declined by 0.8 percent to 131.3 (1982=100) in February. The manufacturing index was unchanged at 107.6. (See tables B-2 and B-5.)

Hourly and Weekly Earnings (Establishment Survey Data)

Average hourly earnings of private production or nonsupervisory workers were unchanged over the month at $11.31 (seasonally adjusted), following a large increase in January. Average weekly earnings declined by 1.1 percent to $390.20, reflecting the shorter workweek. Over the past year, average hourly earnings increased by 2.5 percent and average weekly earnings rose by 3.1 percent. (See table B-3.)