Key Points:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 275,000 in February and the unemployment rate rose 0.2% to 3.9%.
- Consensus among economists was a gain of 200,000 jobs.
- The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised down by 43,000, from +333,000 to +290,000, and the change for January was revised down by 124,000, from +353,000 to +229,000. With these revisions, employment in December and January combined is 167,000 lower than previously reported.
- Health care added 67,000 jobs in February, government employment rose by 52,000, food services and drinking places increased by 42,000, social assistance added 24,000 jobs, construction added 23,000 jobs, and transportation and warehousing rose by 20,000.
- In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by $0.05 to $34.57.
- The average workweek for all private employees fell by 0.1 hours to 34.3 hours in February.
- The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 62.5% for the third month and is 0.9% below its February 2020 level.
- In February, the unemployed population rose to 6.5 million but job openings rose to 8.9 million in January.