Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
Both the civilian labor force, at 153.4 million, and the labor force par-ticipation rate, at 65.9 percent, declined in February. Total employment (146.0 million) and the employment-population ratio (62.7 percent) were little changed over the month.
The number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons, at 4.9 million in February, was little changed over the month but was up by 637,000 over the past 12 months. This category includes persons who indicated that they would like to work full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or they were unable to find full-time jobs.
Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
About 1.6 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached to the labor force in February. These individuals 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 pre- ceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there were 396,000 discouraged workers in February, about the same as a year earlier. Discouraged workers were not currently looking for work specifically because they believed no jobs were available for them. The other 1.2 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in February had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.
Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)
Total nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-63,000) in February, with private-sector employment declining by 101,000. Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed in December (41,000) and January (-22,000). Over the month, job losses occurred in manufacturing, construction, and retail trade. Health care and food services continued to add jobs.
Manufacturing employment continued to decline in February (-52,000), bringing losses over the past 12 months to 299,000. Most of the February decline was concentrated in durable goods manufacturing, as motor vehicles and parts (-13,000), furniture and related products (-6,000), and wood products (-5,000) lost jobs. Within nondurable goods, employment fell in printing and related support activities (-5,000).
Employment in construction decreased by 39,000 in February, and has fallen by 331,000 since its most recent peak in September 2006. During this period, residential specialty trades lost 209,000 jobs, while residential building lost 137,000 jobs. In February, employment in retail trade declined by 34,000. Job losses occurred in department stores (-11,000), building material and garden supply stores (-7,000), and automobile dealers (-6,000). Wholesale trade employment edged down in February, with the durable goods component declining by 9,000.
Professional and business services employment was little changed for the second month in a row; job gains had averaged 26,000 per month in 2007. In February, temporary help services lost 28,000 jobs; employment in the industry has declined by 117,000 since the most recent peak in December 2006.
In financial activities, credit intermediation employment continued to decline and has fallen by 116,000 since a peak in October 2006. In February, real estate employment also continued to trend down; since June 2006, the industry has lost 34,000 jobs.
