Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 311,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged up to 3.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, retail trade, government, and health care. Employment declined in information and in transportation and warehousing.
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The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised down by 21,000, from +260,000 to +239,000, and the change for January was revised down by 13,000, from +517,000 to +504,000. With these revisions, employment gains in December and January combined were 34,000 lower than previously reported.
emphasis added
Click on graph for larger image.
The first graph shows the jobs added per month since January 2022.
Payrolls for December and January were revised down 34 thousand, combined.
The second graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.
In February, the year-over-year change was 4.34 million jobs. Employment was up significantly year-over-year.
The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.
The Labor Force Participation Rate increased to 62.5% in February, from 62.4% in January. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force.
The Employment-Population ratio was unchanged at 60.2% (blue line).
The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.
The unemployment rate increased in February to 3.6% from 3.4% in January.
This was above consensus expectations; however, December and January payrolls were revised down by 34,000 combined.
I’ll have more later …