February 1997 — 1997-02-07

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to comment on the labor market data released this morning. The unemployment rate was essentially unchanged in January at 5.4 percent. Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 271,000 over the month. A number of roughly offsetting special factors influenced the payroll employment estimate. Heavy snows (and resulting employment declines) in January 1996 affected our seasonal adjustment factors for this year, leading to an exaggeration of the over-the-month employment growth in certain industries. On the other hand, employment was dampened in some sectors by bad weather this January, as well as by unusual movements in employment in several industries around the holiday season.