The Employment Situation: January 1996 — 1996-02-02

Nonfarm payroll employment declined by 201,000 in January and the unemployment rate edged up to 5.8 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Unusually severe weather in the eastern part of the country affected the number of payroll jobs in January and also caused a particularly large drop in the average workweek. The jobless rate has held within a relatively narrow range since late 1994. The number of unemployed persons increased by 294,000 in January to a level of 7.7 million. The unemployment rate edged up by 0.2 percentage point to 5.8 percent; it has fluctuated between 5.4 and 5.8 percent since the fall of 1994. The jobless rate for adult women rose by half a point in January to 5.1 percent. Rates for other major worker groups--adult men (4.9 percent), teenagers (18.0 percent), whites (5.0 percent), blacks (10.5 percent), and Hispanics (9.4 percent)--remained at or near their December levels.