The Employment Situation: January 1998 — 1998-02-06

Employment rose substantially in January, and the unemployment rate remained at 4.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Nonfarm payroll employment grew by 358,000, with large gains occurring in construction and manufacturing. Both the number of unemployed persons, 6.4 million, and the unemployment rate, 4.7 percent, were essentially unchanged in January, after seasonal adjustment. Among the major worker groups, the jobless rate for adult women (4.4 percent) rose by 0.4 percentage point in January, while the rate for adult men (3.8 percent) declined to its lowest level in nearly 20 years. Unemployment rates for teenagers (14.1 percent), whites (4.0 percent), blacks (9.3 percent), and Hispanics (6.9 percent) showed little or no change over the month. (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 (7.2 percent) continued its year-long decline.