Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 

under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 

the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. 

Statement of 

William J. Wiatrowski 

Acting Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, March 9, 2018

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 313,000 in 

February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 

percent. Job gains occurred in construction, retail trade, 

professional and business services, manufacturing, financial 

activities, and mining. 

Incorporating revisions for December and January, which 

increased nonfarm payroll employment by 54,000, monthly job 

gains have averaged 242,000 over the past 3 months. 

Construction employment increased by 61,000 in February and 

has grown by 185,000 over the past 4 months. Job growth in 

February occurred among specialty trade contractors (+38,000) 

and in construction of buildings (+16,000), with these increases 

split about evenly between the residential and nonresidential 

components. 
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In February, retail trade employment rose by 50,000. Within 

the industry, employment increased in general merchandise stores 

(+18,000) and clothing stores (+15,000). On a not seasonally 

adjusted basis, these industries hired fewer workers than usual 

for the holidays and did not shed as many jobs as usual after 

the holiday season. As a result, employment rose in these 

industries in February, after seasonal adjustment. However, over 

the past 4 months, which traditionally see the bulk of the 

holiday hiring and layoff, employment in these industries has 

changed little on net. Elsewhere in retail trade, building 

material and garden supply stores added jobs over the month 

(+10,000). 

Employment in professional and business services increased 

by 50,000 in February and has risen by 495,000 over the year. 

Within the industry, employment in temporary help services edged 

up over the month (+27,000). 

Manufacturing employment grew by 31,000 in February. The 

industry has added 224,000 jobs over the past 12 months. In 

February, transportation equipment (+8,000), fabricated metal 

products (+6,000), machinery (+6,000), and primary metals 

(+4,000) added jobs. 

Employment in financial activities rose by 28,000 over the 

month. Job growth occurred in credit intermediation (+8,000); 

insurance carriers (+8,000); and in securities, commodity 
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contracts, and investments (+5,000). Over the year, financial 

activities has added 143,000 jobs. 

In February, mining employment rose by 9,000, with most of 

the job gain occurring in support activities for mining 

(+7,000). Since a recent low point in October 2016, mining has 

added 69,000 jobs. 

Employment in health care continued to trend up over the 

month (+19,000) and has expanded by 290,000 over the year. 

Within the industry, hospitals added 9,000 jobs in February. 

Employment in other major industries--including wholesale 

trade, transportation and warehousing, information, leisure and 

hospitality, and government--changed little over the month. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 4 cents in February to $26.75, following a 

7-cent gain in January. Over the past 12 months, average hourly 

earnings have risen by 2.6 percent. From January 2017 to January 

2018, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) 

increased by 2.1 percent (on a seasonally adjusted basis). 

Turning now to measures from the survey of households, the 

unemployment rate in February was 4.1 percent for the fifth 

month in a row. The number of unemployed people, at 6.7 million, 

was essentially unchanged in February. 

There was also little movement in the number of unemployed 

people who had been looking for work for 27 weeks or more. In 
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February, there were 1.4 million such individuals, accounting 

for 20.7 percent of the unemployed. 

The labor force rose by 806,000 in February, and the labor 

force participation rate increased by 0.3 percentage point to 

63.0 percent. Total employment, as measured by the household 

survey, rose by 785,000, and the employment-population ratio 

increased by 0.3 percentage point to 60.4 percent. 

 Among the employed, the number of people working part time 

for economic reasons, also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers, was little changed at 5.2 million in February. 

 Among those neither working nor looking for work in 

February, 1.6 million were marginally attached to the labor 

force, little different from a year earlier. Discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available to them, numbered 373,000 in February, 

down by 149,000 from a year earlier. (People who are marginally 

attached to the labor force had not looked for work in the 4 

weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were available for 

work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 months.) 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 313,000 

in February, and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 

percent.