The Employment Situation: February 2006 — 2006-03-10

Nonfarm payroll employment grew by 243,000 in February, and the unemploy- ment rate was little changed at 4.8 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job gains occurred in con- struction, financial activities, health care, and several other industries. Both the number of unemployed persons, 7.2 million, and the unemployment rate, 4.8 percent, were little changed in February. A year earlier, the num- ber of unemployed was 8.0 million, and the jobless rate was 5.4 percent. Following a decline in January, the unemployment rate for adult men edged up to 4.2 percent in February. The jobless rates for the other major worker groups--adult women (4.3 percent), teenagers (15.4 percent), whites (4.1 per- cent), blacks (9.3 percent), and Hispanics (5.5 percent)--showed little or no change over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 3.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted.