The Employment Situation: February 1998 — 1998-03-06

Nonfarm payroll employment rose, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.6 percent in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The number of payroll jobs rose by 310,000, with continuing strength in services and construction. Manufacturing employment was about unchanged, following 4 months of strong growth. Both the number of unemployed persons, about 6.4 million, and the unemployment rate, 4.6 percent, were virtually unchanged from the prior month, after seasonal adjustment. Jobless rates for the major worker groups--adult men (3.8 percent), adult women (4.3 percent), teenagers (14.7 percent), whites (3.9 percent), blacks (9.7 percent), and Hispanics (6.8 percent)--showed little or no change in February. (See tables A-1 and A-2.) Among the major educational attainment categories, the jobless rate for persons 25 years and over who had not completed high school (7.0 percent) continued to edge down. Over the year, it has declined by 1.8 percentage points.