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THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: FEBRUARY 2009 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE 

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

MARCH 6, 2009 

Printed for the use of the Joint Economic Committee 

( 

(II) 

JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE 

[Created pursuant to Sec. 5(a) of Public Law 304, 79th Congress] 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Chair 

MAURICE D. HINCHEY, New York 

BARON P. HILL, Indiana 

LORETTA SANCHEZ, California 

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland 

VIC SNYDER, Arkansas 

KEVIN BRADY, Texas 

RON PAUL, Texas 

MICHAEL C. BURGESS, M.D., Texas 

JOHN CAMPBELL, California 

SENATE 

CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York, Vice 

Chairman 

EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts 

JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico 

AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota 

ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania 

JIM WEBB, Virginia 

SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas, Ranking Minority 

JIM DEMINT, South Carolina 

JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho 

ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah 

NAN GIBSON, Executive Director 

JEFF SCHLAGENHAUF, Minority Staff Director 

CHRISTOPHER FRENZE, House Republican Staff Director 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

MEMBERS

Hon. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chair, a U.S. Representative from New York .......... 1 

Hon. Kevin Brady, a U.S. Representative from Texas ......................................... 3 

Hon. Elijah E. Cummings, a U.S. Representative from Maryland ...................... 4 

WITNESSES

Dr. Keith Hall, Commissioner, Bureau of Labor Statistics; Accompanied by: 

Mr. Philip Rones, Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Labor Statistics; and 

Dr. Michael Horrigan, Associate Commissioner for Prices and Living Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics ........................................................................ 5 

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD

Prepared statement of Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Chair .................... 18 

Prepared statement of Representative Kevin Brady ............................................ 18 

Prepared Statement of Dr. Keith Hall, Commissioner, Bureau of Labor Statistics, together with Press Release No. 09–0224 .................................................. 19 

(1) 

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: 

FEBRUARY 2009 

FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 2009 

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE, Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 106 

of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, The Honorable Carolyn B. 

Maloney (Chair) presiding. 

Representatives present: Maloney, Hinchey, Cummings, Snyder, Brady, and Campbell. 

Staff present: Molly Ahearn, Gail Cohen, Eleni Constantine, 

Nan Gibson, Colleen Healy, Aaron Kabaker, Justin Ungson, Andrew Wilson, Jeff Wrase, Chris Frenze, Bob Keleher, and Robert 

O’Quinn. 

Chair Maloney. The meeting will come to order. 

Commissioner Hall, we thank you for testifying today, and we 

also thank your colleagues for joining you. Please introduce your 

colleagues. 

Commissioner Hall. I have with me Deputy Commissioner 

Philip Rones on the right and Dr. Michael Horrigan, Associate 

Commissioner for Prices and Living Conditions on my left. 

Chair Maloney. Thank you. I recognize myself for five minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CAROLYN B. 

MALONEY, CHAIR, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW YORK 

Chair Maloney. The gut-wrenching job losses in today’s report 

highlight the misery and dislocation that American families have 

been enduring since the start of this recession more than a year 

ago. 

Nearly four and a half million Americans have lost their jobs 

over the past 14 months—more than half of them in the last 4 

months as losses have topped 600,000 jobs a month, as this chart 

shows. The unemployment rate now stands at 8.1 percent, the 

highest level in a quarter of a century. 

I am particularly troubled by groups who are being particularly 

hard hit in this recession: women heads of households whose unemployment rate is 10.3 percent; African Americans whose unemployment rate is 13.4 percent; and Latinos whose unemployment rate 

is 10.9 percent. 

This recession is on a path to be the worst since the Great Depression. The job losses have been widespread throughout the economy as employers have cut jobs at an even faster pace over the last 

several months. 

2 

Congress worked closely with President Obama to swiftly pass 

the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last month in order 

to stem job losses and put people back to work as quickly as possible. 

Our recovery package will create or save at least 3.5 million jobs 

across a variety of sectors over the next several years, which will 

soften the downturn and foster a solid economic recovery that benefits all Americans. 

The payments to states, unemployment benefit increases, and 

middle-class tax relief are set to take effect shortly, and I am hopeful that the employment figures will soon reflect this in our economy. 

The stimulus will need time to kick in, but the magnitude of the 

job losses we have seen indicate that additional measures may be 

needed. 

Rising unemployment adds urgency for the Senate to act on the 

Helping Families Save Their Homes bill that just passed the House 

of Representatives yesterday. 

More than 2 million homes have gone into foreclosure and millions of other homeowners find themselves owing more to the bank 

than their homes are worth. 

Not surprisingly, most of the states with the highest foreclosure 

rates also have unemployment rates much higher than the national 

average: California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Ohio. 

Our bill would eliminate an anomaly in the current bankruptcy 

code which prevents a court from lowering the principal on a homeowner’s primary residence despite the court’s ability to lower the 

principal on a second home, a third, a fourth, or a fifth. Given 

trends in the labor market, this anomaly is giving greater force to 

the foreclosure wave. 

When homeowners with negative equity lose their jobs, the result 

is too often foreclosure and financial disaster. Homeowners who 

have lost their jobs are less mobile when they owe more than their 

house is worth. Taking a job in another area of the country would 

entail coming up with money to pay off their mortgage, or taking 

a serious hit to their credit rating by going through bankruptcy. 

And without this change in the Bankruptcy Code, negative home 

equity will be an albatross that follows them forever. 

Without modifications to the Bankruptcy Code, lenders do not 

have the incentive to negotiate with borrowers, even though lenders may be better off by taking a haircut on the principal owed 

rather than enduring foreclosure costs. 

President Obama and the Democrats have embarked on a bold, 

common-sense plan to turn this economy around by enacting a recovery plan, rescuing the financial system, and addressing the 

housing problems that are at the root of the financial crisis. 

Today’s unemployment numbers underscore the need to continue 

our focus on working to solve these complex and intertwined problems. 

[The prepared statement of Representative Maloney appears in 

the Submissions for the Record on page 18.] 

Chair Maloney. The Chair now recognizes Ranking Member, 

Congressman Brady, for five minutes. 

3 

OPENING STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE KEVIN BRADY, A 

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM TEXAS 

Representative Brady. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I would 

like to join you in welcoming Commissioner Hall before the Committee this morning. 

The data released this morning reflects the deepening recession. 

Payroll employment in February declined by 651,000 jobs. The unemployment rate climbed to 8.1 percent. Overall labor market conditions continue to deteriorate. 

The economic outlook for this year is quite bleak. Now the bursting of the credit bubble has sharply reduced asset values, but the 

high debt levels associated with the boom remain, burdening this 

economy. 

Unfortunately, the Administration’s solution to the problems 

posed by this excessive debt burden is to propose an avalanche of 

more deficit spending and higher federal debt. 

The Administration’s use of giddily optimistic economic assumptions make skyrocketing deficit spending appear less threatening 

relative to the size of the economy, but this is an illusion. 

The Administration projects that real GDP will fall only 1.2 percent in 2009 and rise to 3.2 percent next year, compared with a 

Blue Chip Consensus forecast of a decline of 1.9 percent this year, 

and an increase of only 2.1 next. 

More realistic economic assumptions would push the Administration’s projected budget for this year to a deficit closer to $2 trillion. 

Furthermore, a recent study released by the Brookings Institution 

estimates that deficits will average over $1 trillion in each of the 

next 10 years based on what the authors consider to be favorable 

assumptions. 

The Administration’s projections of lower future deficits after 

2010 thus appear to be very optimistic, especially given the ongoing 

push for even more spending on entitlements and various financial 

bailouts. As Clinton Treasury official Roger Altman wrote this 

week, a weaker economy than that projected by the Administration 

‘‘means even bigger deficits than the scary ones projected.’’ 

Ultimately, the likelihood of a timely economic recovery will depend largely on government policy regarding the toxic assets of 

banks. Credit is the life blood of the economy and without functioning credit markets the economy will continue to wither. Unfortunately, the Administration so far has failed to produce a transparent and effective financial rescue plan. 

As the Financial Times noted yesterday, since the Treasury Secretary made this, quote, ‘‘terribly received speech on loans for the 

bank sector, the S&P has dropped 20 percent. Markets may not 

have expected a ‘silver bullet,’ but did expect the new administration to have a clearly stated ‘plan A.’ The realization that it did not 

was a severe blow to confidence.’’ Close quote. 

The Administration needs to produce a clear and effective plan 

to deal with the toxic asset problem of the banks soon if the economy is to have a reasonable prospect of a timely recovery. 

Furthermore, it should drop its plans to drastically increase the 

tax burden on the economy, including its cap and trade proposal 

that would be especially devastating for the manufacturing workVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:00 Jul 16, 2010 Jkt 056277 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\56277.TXT SHAUN PsN: DPROCT
4 

ers. More taxes, deficit spending, and debt will only further burden 

an already weak economy. 

Madam Chairman, I yield back. 

[The prepared statement of Representative Kevin Brady appears 

in the Submissions for the Record on page 18.] 

Chair Maloney. Thank you very much, and I now recognize 

Congressman Cummings for five minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ELIJAH E. 

CUMMINGS, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM MARYLAND 

Representative Cummings. Thank you very much, Madam 

Chairlady. 

Let me start out by saying that, to repeat some of the words of 

the President: While we may be in dismal times, this is America. 

And I think that we have to take the attitude that we will get 

through this, and we will. 

The key is, as I told my staff this morning, the key is to make 

sure that Americans come through this difficult time and come out 

whole at the end of it; and that we put our Nation in a better position so that this does not happen again, so that no other President 

inherits this kind of mess. 

I do believe that we are capable of doing it, and we will do it. 

And I believe in this President, and I know that as this situation 

changes from day to day, hour by hour, it is indeed a very difficult 

moving target but we will hit the target. 

Last week Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke acknowledged that the U.S. is facing a severe contraction. He indicated that it will take us years to fully recover from this economic 

downturn, and that the speed of our recovery will depend in large 

part on the success of concerted actions being taken right now by 

the Federal Government. 

Today’s Unemployment Report, which shows that in February of 

this year another 651,000 Americans were caught in the grip of 

this tightening contraction, is an urgent reminder of why decisive 

and urgent actions are needed to respond to our deepening recession. 

Last week we learned that our economy experienced a 6.2 percent drop in the Gross Domestic Product during the fourth quarter 

of last year. Parallel to this steep drop in the GDP has been a 

widely reported acceleration in the rate of job losses, a trend which 

continued in February. 

In fact, today’s report shows that more than half of the job losses 

we have experienced during this recession have occurred since November of last year. 

Those who have lost their jobs face truly hard times. Many are 

suddenly confronting a situation in which they may not be able to 

afford the homes they have worked their entire lives to own. And 

some are surely among the one in five homeowners whose homes 

are now under water according to a study released just this week. 

Others are confronting a situation in which they cannot pay for 

needed medical care, a child’s education, or even the basic necessities of life. Even those who have not lost their jobs stare at their 

futures with almost paralyzing uncertainty because they do not 

5 

know if their jobs will continue to exist if the economic decline continues to spread. 

At this time, our immediate priority must be to preserve and create jobs; to help those of our neighbors who have been hit hardest 

by this downturn, and to make the kind of public investments that 

will carry a recovering economy forward. 

The accomplishment of these objectives will be supported by the 

implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 

which I joined a majority of the Members of the House of Representatives in supporting. 

Importantly, given the intertwining elements of the crisis we now 

face, our response must continue to be multi-faceted. 

I am pleased to report that yesterday the House passed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, which will begin implementation of part of President Obama’s Homeowner Affordability and 

Stability Plan by helping to make the mortgages of millions of current homeowners facing foreclosure or bankruptcy more affordable 

to them, and I urge the Senate to adopt this measure as quickly 

as possible. 

Like President Obama, I know without a shadow of a doubt that 

we will emerge from this crisis stronger than we were before and 

with a restored economy capable of recovering the ground we have 

lost, and creating new wealth for all Americans. 

However, if we have learned anything from our current crisis it 

is that achieving a sustainable and lasting recovery will require a 

new willingness to be honest about the true nature and extent of 

risk, as well as a renewed commitment to the idea that, for the 

good of our National economy, government must require, through 

strict regulatory measures, responsible actions. 

I look forward to hearing the testimony, and with that I yield 

back. 

Chair Maloney. Thank you very much. I would now like to introduce Commissioner Hall. Dr. Keith Hall is the Commissioner of 

the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor. 

Before becoming BLS Commissioner, Dr. Hall served as Chief 

Economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Bush Administration. Prior to that, he was the Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Dr. Hall received his 

B.A. Degree from the University of Virginia and his M.S. and Ph.D. 

Degrees in Economics from Purdue University. 

Thank you so much for coming, and you may proceed for five 

minutes. 

STATEMENT OF DR. KEITH HALL, COMMISSIONER, BUREAU OF 

LABOR STATISTICS; ACCOMPANIED BY: MR. PHILIP RONES, 

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS; 

AND DR. MICHAEL HORRIGAN, ASSOCIATE COMMISSIONER 

FOR PRICES AND LIVING CONDITIONS, BUREAU OF LABOR 

STATISTICS 

Commissioner Hall. Madam Chair, Members of the Committee: 

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and 

unemployment data we released this morning. 

6 

The sharp and widespread contraction in the labor market continued in February. Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 651,000, 

following declines of 681,000 in December and 655,000 in January. 

Since the recession began in December of 2007, job losses have 

totaled 4.4 million, well more than half of which occurred in the 

past 4 months. In February, the unemployment rate climbed from 

7.6 to 8.1 percent, the highest rate in over 25 years. 

Manufacturing employment declined by 168,000 in February and 

has dropped by 1.3 million since the start of the recession. 

Construction employment fell by 104,000 in February with losses 

throughout the sector. 

In February, employment continued to decline sharply throughout most of the service-providing sector. Professional and business 

services employment dropped by 180,000, including 78,000 jobs lost 

at temporary help service agencies. 

Elsewhere in the service-providing sector, health care employment continued to grow with an increase of 27,000 in February, 

about in line with its recent trend. 

Average hourly earnings for private-sector production and nonsupervisory workers increased by 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, in February. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have 

risen by 3.6 percent. 

From January 2008 to January 2009, the seasonally adjusted 

Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers fell by 0.7 percent. 

Measures from the survey of households also showed continued 

deterioration of the labor market conditions. The unemployment 

rate jumped by half a percentage point in February to 8.1 percent, 

the highest rate since December 1983. 

Jobless rates continued to trend up across the major demographic groups in February. The number of unemployed swelled by 

851,000 to 12.5 million. 

Since the recession began, the rise in unemployment has been 

concentrated among persons who lost jobs, as opposed to job leavers or people joining the labor force. From December 2007 to February 2009, the number of job losers has doubled to 7.7 million, 

and their share of total unemployment has risen from 50 percent 

to 62.3 percent. 

The number of unemployed individuals experiencing long spells 

of joblessness has also risen. In February, 2.9 million persons had 

been unemployed for 6 months or longer, up from 1.3 million at the 

start of the recession. 

The employment-to-population ratio was 60.3 percent in February, down slightly over the month and well below its 62.7 percent 

level at the start of the recession. 

Among the employed, the number of persons working part time 

who would prefer to be working full time climbed sharply over the 

month. 

There were 8.6 million such workers in February, an increase of 

787,000 over the month and nearly 4 million since the recession 

began. 

Among persons who were neither working nor looking for work 

in February, about 2.1 million were classified as marginally attached to the labor force, up from about 1.6 million a year earlier. 

7 

The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 

attached who believed no jobs were available for them, has nearly 

doubled over the past 12 months to 731,000. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment fell by 651,000 in February and the unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent. Since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, job losses have totaled 

4.4 million. 

My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Commissioner Hall appears in the 

Submissions for the Record on page 19.] 

Chair Maloney. Thank you very much. 

These are very gut-wrenching numbers, and I would like to ask 

a question that many of my constituents would like to know: Are 

there any bright spots in this month’s Jobs Report? Is there any 

good news in our economy? 

Commissioner Hall. There are very few bright spots, if any, in 

this report. Labor market weakness is deep and broad across all industries and all demographic groups. 

Chair Maloney. Have you ever seen anything like this before? 

When was the last time that the economy lost more than 600,000 

jobs each month for this many months in a row? 

Commissioner Hall. The answer to that is: Never. We have 

never had four straight months of job loss in excess of 600,000. 

Chair Maloney. The unemployment rate spiked this month to 

8.1 percent, a half a percentage point increase. When was the last 

time that the unemployment rate jumped by half a percentage 

point or more? 

Commissioner Hall. That is a good question. We have to look 

that one up. The level is the highest in about 25 years. 

Chair Maloney. Okay. Get back to me on that. 

Commissioner Hall. We will. 

Chair Maloney. Consumer confidence has fallen to a record low 

as GDP fell by 6.2 percent in the last quarter of 2008, and the Fed 

expects growth to remain in negative territory in the coming year. 

So are there any indications that job losses will stop accelerating 

or slow any time soon? 

Commissioner Hall. I would have to say the answer is probably 

no, right now. In fact, this report may show a slight acceleration 

in job loss compared to even previous months. And the answer to 

your earlier question about the jump in the unemployment rate, it 

jumped that high in May of last year also during the recession. 

Chair Maloney. At the rate this economy is shedding jobs, is 

there any way to avoid historic job losses? 

Commissioner Hall. I would have to say we are already very 

close to historical levels in job losses. As long as we do not get economic growth we are probably not going to get job loss—job gains, 

sorry. 

Chair Maloney. This Congress is considering a number of initiatives to help homeowners stay in their home. I would like to explore with you the correlation between unemployment and the loss 

of home ownership and foreclosure. 

A JEC Study that Congress, found a correlation between unemployment and foreclosures at least for subprime borrowers, and the 

most recent data on foreclosure rates that I have seen show that 

8 

Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and California had the highest foreclosure rates at the end of 2008. 

Do these States have high unemployment rates? Or have they 

had large jumps in unemployment? 

Commissioner Hall. Yes. I think for the most part it is states 

that have had large, large—high unemployment rates that have 

had the higher foreclosures. I think, I think I agree. I have not 

done detailed work on this. I do not want to oversell it, but looking 

at the data there does seem to clearly be a relationship between 

the unemployment rate and foreclosures. 

Chair Maloney. And have we seen a recession that is comparable to this period with respect to foreclosures and unemployment? Have we ever seen anything like this before? 

Commissioner Hall. Certainly not with foreclosures at all. 

Chair Maloney. Well my time has expired and I recognize my 

good friend and colleague, Congressman Brady. 

Representative Brady. Thank you, Madam Chairman, very 

much. 

Commissioner, obviously the numbers are troubling today. I want 

to ask a little about, and I am concerned about, the future accuracy 

of these numbers. It seems to me the Bureau of Labor Statistics 

has a long tradition of professionalism that includes an aversion to 

any hint of political interference. I think you would agree with me 

on that. 

I think that independence has been important to maintain the 

statistical integrity of your data on employment, unemployment, 

earnings, weekly hours, and other important details. I think it has 

been critical that the BLS has no hint of actual or appearance of 

political influence. 

My question is: Who collects the Household Data for you? 

Commissioner Hall. The Household Data is collected by the 

Census Bureau. We have a contract with them. They collect the 

data for us. We design the survey. We tabulate the data. 

Representative Brady. There has been a concerted effort recently to move the Census Bureau out of the Commerce Department and under the thumb of political appointees in the White 

House. 

We have heard some assurances in the last days by the new 

Commerce Secretary that he hopes to block that. But there is a 

worry that these numbers will be politically manipulated in the future. 

I think most American public does not want the Census to be politically manipulated. Those of us who are following closely the 

labor data do not want our unemployment numbers to be politically 

manipulated, as well. 

Is it important for your data that the Census Bureau be completely free of any political appearance or interference by either 

party? 

Commissioner Hall. Absolutely. 

Representative Brady. Let me ask you this: We have seen the 

Obama budget projections as extremely optimistic. They are projecting for their budget purposes only a 1.2 percent contraction this 

year, over a 3 percent expansion next year. The Federal Reserve 

9 

Board Chairman just this week said almost the opposite, 2 percent 

contraction this year and 2 percent expansion next year. 

Given the statistics we are looking at today between the Obama 

budget leaders and the Federal Reserve Chairman, based on the 

numbers you are seeing which projection do you think is more accurate? 

Commissioner Hall. Well I’ll tell you, having some experience 

doing these projections, just let me say that it is very difficult to 

project something like GDP. It is very difficult. And the only thing 

you know when you’re projecting something like GDP is you know 

you’re going to be wrong, because things always change. 

So rather than tell you which one I prefer, I will tell you that 

they have got a very tough job trying to project data in the best 

of times, let alone during a recession. 

Representative Brady. But I mean if you were assuring us of 

a GDP projection, would you stake your reputation on a 1.2 percent 

contraction this year? 

Commissioner Hall. To be honest, I have not looked at it that 

carefully and I am now in sort of a position where, because we 

produce data that I want to stay out of the whole arena of projecting data. 

Representative Brady. Sure. Well given the unemployment 

rate today and the labor market trends you are seeing, what evidence would you bring forward to assure us it is only going to be 

a 1.2 percent contraction, looking at the numbers before you? 

Commissioner Hall. Um—— 

Representative Brady. Or could you? 

Commissioner Hall [continuing]. I couldn’t. I, I, I don’t think 

I, I don’t think I would try to project looking at just the employment numbers. 

Representative Brady. Well I just think both parties are hopeful that we can get the Administration to bring back a new budget 

with new numbers. I think we can take the bad news. I think we 

can deal with it. But I think these rosy scenarios are really undermining credibility at a time when we all need credibility. 

Thank you, sir. 

Chair Maloney. Thank you. And I just would like to respond to 

my good friend and colleague’s allegations about the Census Bureau and efforts to move it to the White House. 

There are absolutely no efforts to move the Census Bureau to the 

White House. Democrats share your concern that we need accurate 

data in order to make informed decisions. 

We hear that Commissioner Hall, among many other agencies, 

rely on accurate data from the Census Bureau. And towards that 

end, there is a bipartisan bill that Congressman Dent and I have 

put out to create a separate, independent agency for the Census so 

that it is totally separate and not under anyone’s thumb. 

One of the concerns is that in the Commerce Department often 

their budget is raided. Sometimes there are allegations that there 

has been some political influence there, but whatever. So let’s end 

this debate and create a separate and independent Census Bureau 

that is fully funded and capable of doing the work, the surveys that 

help Commissioner Hall and others come up with projections of 

10 

where our country is going so that we in a bipartisan way can come 

up with the best policy decisions. 

So I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will support me in this effort to create an independent, strong Census Bureau separate from all other influences so they can come forward 

with the best scientific data to help our country move forward. 

The Chair recognizes—— 

Representative Brady. Madam Chairman, may I ask, I agree 

with you on the independence. Would that agency report directly 

to the White House? 

Chair Maloney [continuing]. The agency would report, like any 

other agency does, to the Congress, to the American Taxpayers, to 

the American Public, and to everyone involved in Government. 

Representative Brady. But its direct line is under White 

House control? Well I agree with you on the independence—— 

Chair Maloney. We want it independent—— 

Representative Brady [continuing]. I hope the White 

House—— 

Chair Maloney [continuing]. But—— 

Representative Brady [continuing]. Is with you, but it is a real 

concern today about the partisanship—— 

Chair Maloney [continuing]. I think the way to handle that concern is to create a separate, independent well-funded Census. We 

do know that in past years there have been sort of a raiding of 

their budgets, and they don’t have the money to do their work, and 

then they cannot produce an accurate Census. 

There was a report that came out yesterday that they are not 

ready to go forward with the Census that is before us in 2010, and 

I believe a separate and independent body, an organization separate like any other independent agency, would be appropriate and 

serve the interests of the American public. 

I would now like to recognize Congressman Snyder, a new member of the Committee from the Great State of California. 

Representative Snyder. Actually I am from the Great State of 

Arkansas—— 

Chair Maloney. Oh, my—— [Laughter.] 

The Chair stands corrected. 

Representative Snyder [continuing]. That’s right. [Laughter.] 

Mr. Commissioner, I wanted to talk about—because I am new to 

this Committee, I am new to your information, your form of report—I want to go to Table B–1, which does not have a page number here, but there are several pages there. 

I am going to ask you specifically—I have about 15 or 20 questions I want to ask you, but what I—I have gone through it just 

very quickly and circled the ones that in fact showed an increase 

in seasonally adjusted numbers of people employed, and just ask 

for your comments, if you have any, on why that number went up. 

It may be that it is not statistically significant. It may be that you 

do not have any comment. 

But I notice that logging is up by .4. Why would logging have 

gone up? 

Commissioner Hall. That actually is a sector that has not seen 

a lot of job loss over the past few months. It has been hovering 

11 

around zero, and I would say point four is not statistically significant. 

Representative Snyder. I notice oil and gas extraction has it 

up by point four. This is in thousands, correct? So you’re talking 

about 400 people—— 

Commissioner Hall. Yes. 

Representative Snyder [continuing]. Over a national survey. 

Commissioner Hall. Right. Exactly. 

Representative Snyder. So although it still is wintertime—you 

know, wintertime is not exactly the best logging time in a lot of 

parts of the country, but oil and gas extraction, I assume that’s in 

parts of the country, including Arkansas, with a lot of natural gas 

drilling going on? Is that your impression? 

Commissioner Hall. Yes. 

Representative Snyder. Down at the bottom, again near the 

bottom, Nondurable goods, Petroleum and coal products? I assume, 

is that related to natural gas, or more coal? 

Commissioner Hall. Um, I’m not sure if it is related to natural 

gas, but—— 

Representative Snyder. Petroleum and coal? 

Commissioner Hall [continuing]. Yes, energy products. 

Representative Snyder. Then on the next page in the Retail 

Trade, Electronics and Appliance Stores, the numbers are up by 

1800. What segments of the electronics and appliance stores are 

putting on help? 

Commissioner Hall. I don’t know. We can follow up a little on 

that, but I will say that 1.8 thousand is not a significant change. 

So it’s not significantly different from zero. 

Representative Snyder. Well, I’ll skip down then to, do you 

consider the Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries up by 

6.5, that’s 6500 people? How do we account for that? 

Commissioner Hall. That one jumps around a bit. If you sort 

of look at the month-to-month change, that one actually has been 

jumping around a little bit. 

Representative Snyder. My time is about out, but I wanted to 

ask, going over to Education and Health Services, Health Care and 

Social Assistance and Health Care in general, what is happening 

with those numbers? Have there been a lot of help wanted signs 

on hospitals and nursing homes and home health agencies? Are 

there people that are shifting out of other segments of the economy 

as things are not going so well taking these jobs? And what do you 

think is going on with those numbers going up fairly dramatically? 

Commissioner Hall. Yes, I think that is a reasonable expectation for part of that. Health care has always been countercyclical. 

In fact, the health care spending oftentimes increases a bit in the 

early parts of a recession. 

Representative Snyder. Thank you. My time is up. 

Chair Maloney. The Chair recognizes Congressman Campbell 

for five minutes. 

Representative Campbell. Thank you. I am from California. 

[Laughter.] 

Welcome to California, Mr. Snyder. 

Chair Maloney. A great State. 

12 

Representative Campbell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank 

you, Commissioner Hall. 

You mentioned now that we have had three months in a row of 

job losses in the 600,000s. Based on your looking at history, or the 

trends in these things, is there any silver lining there that perhaps 

the job losses have stopped at least accelerating, or is there perhaps any history that would say, gee, you can bounce along the bottom here for an extended period of time? Or is there any message 

from that? 

Commissioner Hall. Probably not a good message. It is easy to 

sort of think of these numbers as being relatively stable, but remember it is a stable loss. Losing over 600,000 jobs a month is very 

significant. 

Just to put it into perspective, we have only had maybe 10 

months where we have lost 500,000 jobs or more in the history of 

our series since 1940. This is 4 of the 10 all in a row. 

Representative Campbell. Okay. At this rate, do you have any 

feel—I mean, we will get to double digits, meaning 10 percent or 

higher, pretty quickly at this kind of rate—again, any feel? Does 

prior history tell you anything about that? Or how long would this 

have to continue to get us there? Or what? 

Commissioner Hall. You mean to get to double digits? 

Representative Campbell. Yes. 

Commissioner Hall. You know, I don’t know. It is hard to say. 

I think—for example, I think to get the unemployment rate up to 

something like 10 percent we are talking about losing well over 2 

million additional jobs, if that were to happen. 

Representative Campbell. Okay. I have heard some people 

talk about that the real unemployment rate is actually higher than 

the statistic you put out, arguing that there are new graduates 

from high school and college that are not yet in the workforce but 

they cannot get a job, so they are not counted; or that there are 

people who have given up on getting a job and they are not counted. 

Any validity to those arguments? 

Commissioner Hall. Well we do collect a lot of data. We collect 

a lot of data on people who are not in the labor force, for example. 

And to be in the labor force you have to be either employed, or unemployed and currently looking. But we do have categories of folks 

who want a job, can’t find a job, and have looked in the past year 

for example. 

They are not typically counted in the unemployment rate. But we 

do have some other measures that include those. That would be the 

marginally attached. 

We also have some measures that include people who are parttime but want to be full-time. And we have some measures that 

capture that. 

Representative Campbell. Okay, and finally as my time is 

running out, two questions. One, I thought I heard in your statistics that perhaps real wages have actually increased, if you take 

into account the increase in wages and then your cost-of-living increase. And secondly, do you have any figures on what is happening with productivity. Because without—we can’t ever have sustained growth without productivity. 

13 

Commissioner Hall. Right. You’re correct, real wages have 

been growing. The down side of that is of course it has been growing primarily because energy prices have dropped so significantly. 

So it is less a function of the labor market; more a function of declining energy prices. 

Of course that is good news, because declining energy prices is 

actually itself a bit of a stimulus for the economy. 

And with respect to productivity, actually productivity has been 

surprisingly high for a recession. To be honest, though, the measure of productivity is fairly volatile at this point. For example, we 

just saw the GDP revised down significantly. 

I would anticipate that is going to cause us to revise down our 

productivity numbers recently. So there is a real cyclical component 

to productivity, where it will go up initially in a recession and then 

go down. 

So I am not sure right at the moment the near-term productivity 

tells you very much about the long-run growth prospects. 

Representative Campbell. Thank you. 

Chair Maloney. Mr. Cummings. 

Representative Cummings. Thank you very much, Madam 

Chair. 

Given the growing constraints on state and local budgets and the 

record federal deficit, what do you think will happen to government 

employment in the months to come? And what will this mean to 

the overall labor market? 

Commissioner Hall. It is typical in recessions for state governments—at least noneducational state government employment—to 

eventually decline in a recession, but typically it’s at least a year 

into a recession. 

What we are seeing now, we have actually seen that start to decline a bit earlier than most recessions, the state employment, 

state government. So if that is an indication, that has started a bit 

early. 

With respect to local government employment, typically in past 

recessions local government employment has not fallen at all; it 

has continued to grow. And we have had flat local government employment, and that has been unusual so far in this recession. 

Representative Cummings. As of January 2008, the unemployment rate for African Americans and Latinos had jumped 

about 4.1 percentage points since the recession began. 

Is it typical for unemployment rates to increase this much during 

a recession? 

Commissioner Hall. Well this is—it’s not typical for the unemployment rate to increase this much during recessions. It is not unprecedented. It rose this much back in the 1970s for example. 

But with respect to African Americans in particular, it is typical 

that they start with a higher unemployment rate and they have a 

larger increase in the unemployment rate during a recession than 

other groups, certainly with whites. 

Representative Cummings. And what do you account for the 

difference? 

Commissioner Hall. I’m not sure I would account for all of it. 

I have not done a lot of work in this, so I am not sure I can tell 

you what the answer is on that. 

14 

Representative Cummings. Tell me about the difference between the trends when you compare people with degrees and those 

without degrees, as far as unemployment? I mean, who is losing 

jobs the fastest, at a greater amount? 

Commissioner Hall. Sure. Well again the pattern this recession 

has been typical of past recessions. Those without high school degrees start with the higher unemployment rate and have had a bigger increase. For example, they have had an increase over the past 

12 months of about 5.2 percentage points. 

Representative Cummings. And that is who, now? 

Commissioner Hall. These are folks without high school degrees. And then people with high school degrees but no college, 

they have a slightly lower unemployment rate but again it has 

gone up more. 

Then you get all the way up to people with a college degree, and 

they have the lowest unemployment rate, but that rate itself has 

also gone up. 

Representative Cummings. And so as far as—now going back 

to something you said that was very interesting, you said that 

there had been 10 months where we have had, what was it—— 

Commissioner Hall. When we have lost over a half a million 

jobs. 

Representative Cummings [continuing]. And we now have 

four of them. 

Commissioner Hall. Yes. 

Representative Cummings. What does that tell you? I mean, 

I know you don’t like to predict, but would you be surprised if we 

have a fifth? 

Commissioner Hall. Let me just say that the trend in the labor 

market up to now, there has been no trend of improvement. 

Representative Cummings. So you’re not answering the question, or what? 

Commissioner Hall. I don’t want to forecast, but I will tell you 

there are no signs of improvement in this report. And if anything 

there is a slight deterioration in the decline in the labor market in 

this report. 

Representative Cummings. Thank you. I see my time is up. 

Thank you, Madam Chairlady. 

Chair Maloney. Congressman Hinchey. 

Representative Hinchey. Thank you very much, Madam 

Chairman, and thank you, gentlemen, very much, for your information today and for the work that you do. 

It is quite clear that we are facing one of the most difficult economic conditions that this country has ever had to deal with, and 

the circumstances are getting increasingly worse. 

It is remarkable that over the course of the last two years members of this Committee and others on the Appropriations Committee, for example, have tried to get attention focused on this 

problem by a number of people in the previous Administration, including the Secretary of the Treasury, who continued to deny that 

there was any upcoming problem in the economy, which was increasingly obvious to anyone who was looking at this, and it was 

also obvious based upon the information that we have received 

from your offices over the course of the last couple of years. 

15 

So this situation is dire, deep and is getting desperate. We need 

to deal with this in an appropriate way. Look what happened with 

the so-called ‘‘Stimulus Bill,’’ the Reinvestment Package that was 

passed by the Congress and signed by the President, how politicized that became, how difficult it was to get people on the other 

side of the aisle to vote for it. 

And the circumstances that we are now facing with the Omnibus 

Appropriations bill, which is being blocked in the Senate, and all 

of that is causing this economy to get increasingly worse. 

We know what has to be done. We know what has to be changed. 

We know what the causes are: the tax cuts of the Bush Administration which concentrated the wealth in the hands of fewer and 

fewer people than we have experienced since 1929. And, the reckless spending in which they engaged—particularly outside of the 

country in places like Iraq. 

So the circumstances that we are dealing with all derive from 

that incompetence, and even forms of corruption that we have experienced over the course of the last number of years. 

Last month the economy lost 651,000 jobs, increasing the unemployment rate to 8.1 percent, which was much higher than was 

forecast in December. The payroll drop in January was revised up, 

as you have said, to 655,000. December now shows a 681,000 drop, 

up from the 577,000 which was previously estimated. 

That December decline in employment is now the worst we have 

seen since October of 1949. The U.S. economy has now lost almost 

4.5 million jobs since the recession officially began in December of 

2007. But what drove it was in existence prior to that and was having its impact prior to December of 2007. 

It is the biggest employment slump of any economic downturn 

since the end of the Second World War. Long-term unemployment 

has increased by 270,000 to almost 3 million people across the 

country now. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term 

unemployed has increased by 1.6 million. More than half of the 

long-term unemployment we are experiencing has occurred over 

the course of just the last 12 months. 

The anticipation is that we are going to lose 2 million more jobs 

that are likely to be lost over the course of this year and into next 

year. And the unemployment rate is likely to continue to go up to 

hit 9 percent or 10 percent. 

All of that is going to happen unless—unless we change the economic policies of this Congress, which is now being very positively 

driven by this new Administration. 

So what do you think? What do you think of that? Don’t you 

think we should be acting in a strong and positive way to get this 

economy back on line? 

Commissioner Hall. Well I certainly think the economy is in 

trouble, and I think you have accurately identified a lot of the problems and how serious this problem is. And the trend so far has not 

been encouraging with the economy. 

Representative Hinchey. It is not encouraging at all. And the 

only way to make it encouraging is for us to stimulate the economy, 

stimulate the economy by the economic development, so-called 

‘‘stimulus bill’’ which was signed by the President and is now being 

16 

put into motion, but also by the normal budget bills that we have 

to pass. 

The budget bill for this fiscal year, which is now essentially almost half over, refused to be signed by the previous President because it was contained as a result of the initiatives by this Congress, it contained internal investment, internal investment in the 

needs of our country, to upgrade jobs, to increase economic circumstances, to correct all the—begin to correct at least all the 

problems that we have been facing. 

And that is what we are dealing with now. And we are dealing 

with the problem in the Senate where some people are just unwilling to face up to their obligations and responsibilities, unwilling to 

pass the normal budget bill that we need right now in this fiscal 

year. 

What they are trying to do is drive it down so that we do not 

have enough economic development, economic stimulus, which is 

going to combat this downturn in jobs, and which is going to drive 

up employment, increase employment. 

If you look at the unemployment in the manufacturing industry, 

for example, how dark that is, and so many other aspects of the 

economy in this country, the service economy, the manufacturing 

economy, the construction economy, all of that is going down. 

We will correct that in the context of this Appropriations bill, in 

the context of this budget bill which is now being stalled in the 

Senate. 

Chair Maloney. Thank you. 

Representative Hinchey. That needs to be done. 

Chair Maloney. That is a forceful statement, and we have been 

called for a vote. I have a series of other questions that I would 

like to present to you in writing, and invite the other members of 

the panel to do the same. 

Chair Maloney. We thank you for your professional work, and 

we thank your colleagues for being here today to talk about the unemployment situation. These numbers are sobering, and I look forward to the continuing focus on labor market conditions by this 

Committee and working with the Democrats and Republicans to 

advance policies to reverse these conditions and move our economy 

forward. 

I thank you for being here today. The meeting is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 10:18 a.m., Friday, March 6, 2009, the hearing 

adjourned.] 

(17) 

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD 

18 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CAROLYN MALONEY, CHAIR, JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

The gut-wrenching job losses in today’s report highlight the misery and dislocation that American families have been enduring since the start of this recession 

more than a year ago. Nearly 4 and a half million Americans have lost their jobs 

over the past 14 months—more than half of them in the last 4 months as losses 

have topped 600,000 jobs a month. The unemployment rate now stands at 8.1 percent—the highest level in a quarter of a century. 

I am particularly troubled by groups who are being particularly hard-hit in this 

recession—women heads of households, whose unemployment rate is 10.3 percent; 

African Americans, whose unemployment rate is 13.4 percent; and Latinos, whose 

unemployment rate is 10.9 percent. 

This recession is on a path to be the worst since the Great Depression. The job 

losses have been widespread throughout the economy as employers have cut jobs at 

an even faster pace over the last several months. Congress worked closely with 

President Obama to swiftly pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last 

month in order to stem job losses and put people back to work as quickly as possible. 

Our recovery package will create or save at least 3.5 million jobs across a variety 

of sectors over the next several years, which will soften the downturn and foster a 

solid economic recovery that benefits all Americans. The payments to states, unemployment benefit increases, and middle-class tax relief are set to take effect shortly, 

and I am hopeful that the employment figures will reflect this soon. The stimulus 

will need time to kick in, but the magnitude of the job losses we’ve seen indicate 

that additional measures may be needed. 

Rising unemployment adds urgency for the Senate to act on the Helping Families 

Save Their Homes bill that just passed in the House of Representatives yesterday. 

More than 2 million homes have gone into foreclosure, and millions of other homeowners find themselves owing more to the bank than their homes are worth. Not 

surprisingly, most of the states with the highest foreclosure rates also have unemployment rates much higher than the national average—California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Ohio. 

Our bill would eliminate an anomaly in the current bankruptcy code, which prevents a court from lowering the principal on a homeowner’s primary residence despite the court’s ability to lower the principal on a second home. Given trends in 

the labor market, that anomaly is giving greater force to the foreclosure wave. 

When homeowners with negative equity lose their jobs, the result is too often foreclosure and financial disaster. These homeowners cannot meet their mortgage payments, they cannot sell their homes for enough money to cover their mortgage, and 

they cannot reduce their debt to a manageable level through bankruptcy. As a result 

they lose their homes to foreclosure, their credit rating is destroyed, and they have 

a continuing burden of debt. 

In this way rising unemployment is aggravating an already serious crisis in the 

housing market. As more people lose their homes to foreclosure, the stock of unsold 

houses increases, putting more downward pressure on house prices. This leads to 

more homeowners owing more than their house is worth, which leads to still more 

foreclosures. 

Some unemployed workers are simply trapped by falling home prices. Homeowners who have lost their jobs are less mobile when they owe more than their 

house is worth—taking a job in another area of the country would entail coming up 

with money to pay off their mortgage or taking a serious hit to their credit rating 

by going through bankruptcy. And without this change in the bankruptcy code, negative home equity will be an albatross that follows them forever. 

Without modifications to the bankruptcy code, lenders don’t have the incentive to 

negotiate with borrowers, even though lenders may be better off by taking a haircut 

on the principal owed rather than enduring foreclosure costs. 

President Obama and the Democrats have embarked on a bold, common sense 

plan to turn this economy around by enacting a recovery plan, rescuing the financial 

system and addressing the housing problems that are at the root of the financial 

crisis. 

Today’s unemployment numbers underscore the need to continue our focus on 

working to solve these complex and intertwined problems. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE KEVIN BRADY, SENIOR HOUSE

REPUBLICAN

I would like to join in welcoming Commissioner Hall before the Committee this 

morning. 

19 

The data released this morning reflect a deepening recession. Payroll employment 

in February declined by 651,000. The unemployment rate climbed from 7.6 to 8.1 

percent. Overall labor market conditions continue to deteriorate. 

The economic outlook for the year is quite bleak. The bursting of the credit bubble 

has sharply reduced asset values, but the high debt levels associated with the boom 

remain, burdening the economy. Unfortunately, the administration’s solution to the 

problems posed by this excessive debt burden is to propose an avalanche of more 

deficit spending and higher federal debt. 

The administration’s use of relatively optimistic economic assumptions make skyrocketing deficit spending appear less threatening relative to the size of the economy, but this is an illusion. The administration projects that real GDP will fall 1.2 

percent in 2009 and rise 3.2 percent in 2010, compared with a Blue Chip Consensus 

forecast of a decline of 1.9 percent in 2009 and an increase of 2.1 percent in 2010. 

More realistic economic assumptions would push the administration’s projected 2009 

budget deficit of $1.75 trillion closer to $2 trillion. Furthermore, a recent study released by the Brookings Institution estimates that deficits will average over $1 trillion in each of the next ten years, based on what the authors consider to be favorable assumptions. 

The administration’s projections of lower future deficits after 2010 thus appear to 

be optimistic, especially given the ongoing push for even more spending on entitlements and various financial bailouts. As Clinton Treasury official Roger Altman 

wrote this week, a weaker economy than that projected by the administration 

‘‘means even bigger deficits than the scary ones projected.’’ 

Ultimately, the likelihood of a timely economic recovery will depend largely on 

government policy regarding the toxic assets of banks. Credit is the life blood of the 

economy, and without functioning credit markets the economy will continue to wither. Unfortunately, the administration so far has failed to produce a transparent and 

effective financial rescue plan. 

As the Financial Times noted yesterday, since the Treasury Secretary made ‘‘his 

terribly received speech on loans for the bank sector, the S&P has dropped 20 percent. Markets may not have expected a ‘silver bullet,’ but did expect the new administration to have a clearly stated ‘plan A.’ The realization that it did not was a severe blow to confidence.’’ 

The administration needs to produce a clear and effective plan to deal with the 

toxic asset problem of the banks soon, if the economy is to have a reasonable prospect of a timely recovery. Furthermore, it should drop its plans to drastically increase the tax burden on the economy, including its cap and trade proposal that 

would be especially devastating for manufacturing workers. More taxes, deficit 

spending, and debt will only further burden an already weak economy. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF KEITH HALL, COMMISSIONER, BUREAU OF LABOR

STATISTICS

Madam Chair and Members of the Committee: 

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and unemployment data 

we released this morning. 

The sharp and widespread contraction in the labor market continued in February. 

Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 651,000, following declines of 681,000 in December and 655,000 in January. Since the recession began in December 2007, job 

losses have totaled 4.4 million, well more than half of which occurred in the past 

4 months. In February, the unemployment rate climbed from 7.6 to 8.1 percent, the 

highest rate in over 25 years. 

Manufacturing employment declined by 168,000 in February and has dropped by 

1.3 million since the start of the recession. Employment has fallen in nearly all 

manufacturing industries during this period. In February, manufacturing hours decreased by two-tenths of an hour, as did factory overtime hours. 

Construction employment fell by 104,000 in February with losses throughout the 

sector. This industry has shed 904,000 jobs since the recession began, with about 

half of the decline occurring in the past 4 months. 

In February, employment continued to decline sharply throughout most of the 

service-providing sector. Professional and business services employment dropped by 

180,000, including 78,000 jobs lost at temporary help agencies. Employment in temporary help has fallen by 686,000 since the recession began. Other large over-themonth job losses occurred in transportation and warehousing (¥49,000), especially 

trucking; financial activities (¥44,000); retail trade (¥40,000); and wholesale trade 

(¥37,000). 

20 

Elsewhere in the service-providing sector, health care employment continued to 

grow with an increase of 27,000 in February, about in line with its recent trend. 

Average hourly earnings for private-sector production and nonsupervisory workers 

increased by 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, in February. Over the past 12 months, average 

hourly earnings have risen by 3.6 percent. From January 2008 to January 2009, the 

seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical 

Workers (CPI–W) fell by 0.7 percent. 

Measures from the survey of households also showed continued deterioration of 

labor market conditions. The unemployment rate jumped by half a percentage point 

in February to 8.1 percent, the highest rate since December 1983. Jobless rates continued to trend up across the major demographic groups in February. The number 

of unemployed swelled by 851,000 to 12.5 million. 

Since the recession began, the rise in unemployment has been concentrated 

among persons who lost jobs, as opposed to job leavers or people joining the labor 

force. From December 2007 to February 2009, the number of job losers has doubled 

to 7.7 million, and their share of total unemployment has risen from 50.0 to 62.3 

percent. 

The number of unemployed individuals experiencing long spells of joblessness also 

has risen. In February, 2.9 million persons had been unemployed for 27 weeks or 

longer, up from 1.3 million at the start of the recession. 

The employment-population ratio was 60.3 percent in February, down slightly 

over the month and well below its 62.7 percent level at the start of the recession. 

Among the employed, the number of persons working part time who would prefer 

to be working full time climbed sharply over the month. There were 8.6 million such 

workers in February, an increase of 787,000 over the month and nearly 4 million 

since the recession began. 

Among persons who were neither working nor looking for work in February, about 

2.1 million were classified as marginally attached to the labor force, up from about 

1.6 million a year earlier. These individuals wanted a job, were available for work, 

and had looked for a job within the last 12 months. The number of discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed no jobs were available 

for them, has nearly doubled over the past 12 months to 731,000. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment fell by 651,000 in February, and the 

unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent. Since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, job losses have totaled 4.4 million. 

My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your questions. 

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