The Employment Situation: February 1997 — 1997-03-07

Nonfarm payroll employment rose, and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 5.3 percent in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The number of payroll jobs increased by 339,000 over the month; construction employment rose sharply, and there were gains throughout the service-producing sector. Average hourly earnings rose by 3 cents in February, and the average workweek rebounded from a weather-related drop in January. The number of unemployed persons, 7.2 million, and the unemployment rate, 5.3 percent, were essentially unchanged in February, after seasonal adjustment. Jobless rates for the major demographic groups--adult men (4.4 percent), adult women (4.7 percent), teenagers (17.5 percent), whites (4.5 percent), blacks (11.3 percent), and Hispanics (8.1 percent)--showed little movement over the month. (See tables A-1 and A-2.) Total employment was about unchanged in February, at 128.4 million (seasonally adjusted), following a substantial increase in January.