The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released the February 2012 Employment Situation this morning with another month of better than expected jobs numbers. The consensus was for an increase of 204,000 jobs and for no change in the unemployment rate in February. From the BLS:
Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in professional and businesses services, health care and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and mining.
The US economy added 227,000 payroll jobs added in February–with 233,000 private sector jobs added, and 6,000 government jobs lost. Government employment has been relatively stable over the past three months after losing an average of 22,000 jobs per month throughout 2011.
The string of upward revisions in payroll employment continues. December and January estimates were revised upwards by 20,000 and 41,000 respectively. In the past twelve months, the US economy has added an average of 168,000 jobs per month. Assuming the labor force participation rate remains at its current low level of 63.9%, this rate of job creation is sufficient to bring the unemployment rate down to nearly 7.7% by years end.
In February, job gains were widespread. Job losses occurred in construction, retail trade, information, and government sectors. Despite the widespread employment gains, and the addition of more than 2.8 million jobs since September of last year, a large number of workers still remain only marginally employed. The broadest measure of labor underutilizaton (U-6) which includes part time workers and marginally attached workers declined only slightly to 14.9% in February.
– Carl Bonham