The Employment Situation: February 2005 — 2005-03-04

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 262,000 in February and the unem- ployment rate edged up to 5.4 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job growth occurred in both goods- producing and service-providing industries. In February, both the number of unemployed persons, 8.0 million, and the un- employment rate, 5.4 percent, returned to their December levels after dipping in January. The jobless rate had been either 5.4 or 5.5 percent during each of the last 6 months of 2004. In February, the unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (4.9 percent), adult women (4.7 percent), teen- agers (17.5 percent), whites (4.6 percent), blacks (10.9 percent), and His- panics or Latinos (6.4 percent)--showed little change. The unemployment rate for Asians was 4.5 percent in February, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) The number of long-term unemployed--those unemployed for 27 weeks and over-- remained at 1.6 million in February.