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The Employment Situation – February 2017

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Household Survey Data
The number of unemployed persons, at 7.5 million, changed little in February. The unemployment rate, at 4.7 percent, was little changed over the month but was down from 4.9 percent a year earlier.

Employment Logistics

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate decreased for Whites to 4.1 percent in February, while the jobless rates for adult men (4.3 percent), adult women (4.3 percent), teenagers (15.0 percent), Blacks (8.1 percent), Asians (3.4 percent), and Hispanics (5.6 percent) showed little or no change.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 1.8 million in February and accounted for 23.8 percent of the unemployed. Over the year, the number of long-term unemployed was down by 358,000.  In February, the labor force participation rate, at 63.0 percent, and the employment-population ratio,
at 60.0 percent, showed little change.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed at 5.7 million in February. These individuals, who
would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time jobs. (See table A-8.)
In February, 1.7 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, little different from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
Among the marginally attached, there were 522,000 discouraged workers in February, little changed  from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.2  million persons marginally attached to the labor force in February had not searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

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