The Employment Situation: February 2004 — 2004-03-05

Nonfarm employment was little changed (+21,000) in February, and the unemployment rate remained at 5.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment levels in most of the major industries were little changed over the month. The number of unemployed persons was 8.2 million in February, and the unemployment rate held at 5.6 percent, seasonally adjusted. Both measures are below their recent highs of June 2003. Unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (5.1 percent), adult women (4.9 percent), teenagers (16.6 percent), whites (4.9 percent), blacks (9.8 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (7.4 percent)--showed little or no change over the month. The unem- ployment rate for Asians was 4.7 percent in February, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) Total employment was down in February to 138.3 million, and the employment- population ratio--the proportion of the population age 16 and older with jobs-- declined to 62.2 percent.