The Employment Situation: March 2002 — 2002-04-05

Both payroll employment and the unemployment rate were little changed in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Manufacturing and construction each lost nearly 40,000 jobs, but services employment grew substantially. Both the manufacturing workweek and overtime hours rose over the month. The number of unemployed persons (8.1 million) and the unemployment rate (5.7 percent) were little changed in March. The jobless rate has been within two-tenths of a percentage point of 5.6 percent since October 2001. The unemployment rate for blacks increased to 10.7 percent in March. Jobless rates for the other major worker groups--adult men (5.2 percent), adult women (5.0 percent), teenagers (16.4 percent), whites (5.0 percent), and Hispanics (7.3 percent)--showed little or no change. (See tables A-1 and A-2.) Total employment fell by 425,000 in March to 133.9 million, after seasonal adjustment. The employment-population ratio declined by 0.2 percentage point to 62.8 percent.