The Employment Situation: February 1995 — 1995-03-10

Employment continued to increase in February and unemployment returned to December levels, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The unemployment rate fell back to 5.4 percent; in January, the rate had been 5.7 percent. Nonfarm payroll employment, as measured by the survey of employers, rose by 318,000, with substantial increases in services and retail trade and continued growth in manufacturing. Total employment, as measured by the household survey, also had a large gain. Average hourly earnings showed no change in February, following a marked rise in January. The unemployment rate dropped by 0.3 percentage point to 5.4 percent in February, after rising by the same amount in January. At 7.2 million, the number of unemployed also was at the same level as in December. Since January 1994, the unemployment level has declined by 1.6 million and the jobless rate has fallen by 1.3 percentage points.