March 2009 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.

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline sharply in March (-663,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 8.1 to 8.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last 5 months. In March, job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

In March, the number of unemployed persons increased by 694,000 to 13.2 mil- lion, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has grown by about 5.3 million, and the unem- ployment rate has risen by 3.4 percentage points. Half of the increase in both the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate occurred in the last 4 months. (See table A-1.)

The unemployment rates continued to trend upward in March for adult men (8.8 percent), adult women (7.0 percent), whites (7.9 percent), and Hispanics (11.4 percent). The jobless rates for blacks (13.3 percent) and teenagers (21.7 per- cent) were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 6.4 percent in March, not seasonally adjusted, up from 3.6 percent a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed tem- porary jobs increased by 547,000 to 8.2 million in March. This group has nearly doubled in size over the past 12 months. (See table A-8.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose to 3.2 million over the month and has increased by about 1.9 million since the start of the recession in December 2007. (See table A-9.)

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

The civilian labor force participation rate (65.5 percent) was little changed in March. The employment-population ratio fell by 0.4 percentage point to 59.9 percent. The employment-population ratio for adult men was 68.2 percent in March, down 4.3 percentage points since December 2007. The employment-population ratio for adult women was 56.8 percent, down 1.3 percentage points since the beginning of the recession. (See table A-1.)

In March, the number of persons working part time for economic reasons (some- times referred to as involuntary part-time workers) climbed by 423,000 to 9.0 million. (See table A-5.)

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

About 2.1 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached to the labor force in March, 754,000 more than a year earlier. These individ- uals 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. Among the marginally attached, there were 685,000 discouraged workers in March, up by 284,000 from a year earlier. Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.4 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in March 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 continued to fall sharply (-663,000) in March. Payroll employment has declined by 3.3 million in the past 5 months. In March, job losses were large and extended across nearly all major industry sectors. (See table B-1.)

Manufacturing employment fell by 161,000 in March, with widespread job losses occurring among the component industries. Factory employment has declined by 1.0 million over the past 6 months. In March, the largest decreases occurred in fabricated metal products (-28,000), machinery (-27,000), and transportation equipment (-26,000).

The construction industry lost 126,000 jobs in March, with declines occur- ring throughout the industry. Employment in construction has fallen by 1.3 mil- lion since peaking in January 2007; nearly half of that decline occurred over the last 5 months. In March, employment fell in specialty trade contractors (-83,000) and construction of buildings (-33,000). These declines were split about evenly between the residential and nonresidential portions of these in- dustries. Heavy and civil engineering construction also lost 10,000 jobs. Em- ployment in mining and logging declined by 18,000 in March.

Employment in professional and business services fell by 133,000 in March, with declines throughout most of the sector. More than half of the loss occurred in temporary help services, which cut 72,000 jobs in March and 767,000 since December 2007. In March, architectural and engineering services lost 16,000 jobs.

Retail trade employment fell by 48,000 over the month. Since peaking in November 2007, employment in the industry has declined by an average of 44,000 per month. In March, employment decreased in building material and garden supply stores (-13,000), automobile dealerships (-12,000), and electronics and appliance stores (-10,000). Employment in wholesale trade fell by 31,000 in March, with nearly all of the decline occurring in durable goods.

Employment in financial activities continued to decline in March (-43,000). The number of jobs in this industry has dropped by 495,000 since an employment peak in December 2006. More than half of this loss occurred in the past 7 months. In March, job losses occurred in credit intermediation (-15,000); real estate (-12,000); and securities, commodity contracts, and investments (-7,000).

Leisure and hospitality shed 40,000 jobs in March, with most of the decrease in the accommodation industry (-23,000). The leisure and hospitality industry has lost 351,000 jobs since an employment peak in December 2007.

Transportation and warehousing lost 34,000 jobs in March, raising total job losses to 265,000 since employment peaked in December 2007. In March, employ- ment declined in truck transportation (-15,000), support activities for trans- portation (-7,000), and couriers and messengers (-5,000). Health care employ- ment continued to trend up in March (14,000); however, monthly job growth in the first quarter averaged 17,000 compared with 30,000 per month in 2008.

The change in total nonfarm employment for January was revised from -655,000 to -741,000, while the change for February remained -651,000. Monthly revisions result from additional sample reports and the monthly recalculation of seasonal factors.

Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)

In March, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls fell by 0.1 hour to 33.2 hours, seasonally adjusted--the lowest level on record for the series, which began in 1964. The manufacturing workweek decreased by 0.2 hour to 39.3 hours, and factory overtime was unchanged at 2.7 hours. (See table B-2.)

The index of aggregate weekly hours of production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls fell by 1.0 percent in March. The manufacturing index declined by 2.1 percent over the month. (See table B-5.)

Hourly and Weekly Earnings (Establishment Survey Data)

In March, average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, seasonally adjusted. This followed a gain of 4 cents in February. Over the past 12 months, average hour- ly earnings increased by 3.4 percent, and average weekly earnings rose by 1.5 per- cent. (See table B-3.)