The Employment Situation: February 1996 — 1996-03-08

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 705,000 in February, and the unemployment rate decreased to 5.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The jump in payroll jobs follows a decline of 188,000 in January, which largely reflected the severe weather conditions in the eastern part of the country. The jobless rate has hovered within a relatively narrow range since late 1994. The unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage point to 5.5 percent in February, and the number of unemployed persons decreased by 322,000 to 7.4 million. Each had risen by a similar magnitude in January, as revised. The unemployment rate has fluctuated between 5.4 and 5.8 percent since the last quarter of 1994. In February, the jobless rate for adult women decreased by 0.3 percentage point to 4.8 percent; the rate for teenagers dropped 1.6 percentage points to 16.6 percent.