NFP = 192,000

The employment report for February just came out. The economy created 192,000 jobs last month which was below Wall Street’s forecast of 200,000. Nonfarm payrolls for December were revised up to 152,000 from 121,000. January’s NFP was revised to up 63,000 from 36,000.

The unemployment rate ticked down to 8.9%. That’s the lowest rate since April 2009. The Wall Street Journal notes that if labor-force participation were at pre-recession levels, unemployment would be 11.5% instead of 8.9%

Private hiring, which excludes government agencies, rose by 222,000 in February, exceeding the 200,000 median forecast in the Bloomberg survey. Private payroll gains averaged 145,000 during the first two months of the year, compared with 120,000 during the last half of 2010.

Factory payrolls increased by 33,000 last month, exceeding the survey forecast of a 25,000 gain.

Service Employment

Employment at service-providers rose 122,000. Construction payrolls rose 33,000 and transportation and warehousing jobs increased by 22,000. Retail trade employment declined 8,100.

Government payrolls decreased by 30,000 last month reflecting cuts at the state and local level. Federal government employment was unchanged.

Average hourly earnings rose to $22.87 from $22.86 in the prior month, today’s report showed. The average work week for all workers held at 34.2 hours.

The so-called underemployment rate — which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking — decreased to 15.9 percent from 16.1 percent.

The report also showed a decrease in long-term unemployed Americans. The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more was little changed as a percentage of all jobless, at 43.9 percent.

Posted by on March 4th, 2011 at 8:34 am


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