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 8, 2019

 Nonfarm payroll employment changed little in February 

(+20,000), and the unemployment rate decreased to 3.8 percent. 

Employment continued to trend up in professional and business 

services, health care, and wholesale trade but declined in 

construction. 

 Incorporating revisions for December and January, which 

increased nonfarm payroll employment by 12,000, monthly job 

gains averaged 186,000 over the past 3 months. 

 Employment continued to trend up in professional and 

business services in February (+42,000), in line with average 

monthly growth over the prior 12 months. 

 Health care added 21,000 jobs in February. Over the past 

year, health care employment rose by 361,000. 
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 Employment in wholesale trade continued to trend up in 

February (+11,000). Over the year, the industry has added 95,000 

jobs. 

 Construction employment fell by 31,000 in February, 

partially offsetting a gain of 53,000 in January. Employment in 

heavy and civil engineering construction decreased by 13,000 in 

February. Over the year, construction employment was up by 

223,000. 

 Manufacturing employment showed little change over the 

month (+4,000). Over the prior 12 months, manufacturing had 

added an average of 22,000 jobs per month. 

 Employment in leisure and hospitality was unchanged in 

February, after rising by 89,000 in January and 65,000 in 

December. Over the year, employment in the industry increased by 

410,000, mostly in food services and drinking places. 

 Employment in other major industries--including mining, 

retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, 

financial activities, and government--showed little or no change 

over the month. 

 Average hourly earnings of all employees on private 

nonfarm payrolls rose by 11 cents in February to $27.66. Over 

the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have grown by 3.4 

percent. From January 2018 to January 2019, the Consumer Price 
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Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.5 percent 

(on a seasonally adjusted basis). 

 Turning now to our survey of households, the unemployment 

rate declined by 0.2 percentage point in February to 3.8 

percent. The number of unemployed people fell by 300,000 over 

the month to 6.2 million. Among the unemployed, the number of 

job losers and people who completed temporary jobs (including 

people on temporary layoff) declined by 225,000 in February. 

This decline reflects, in part, the return of federal workers 

who were furloughed in January due to the partial government 

shutdown. 

 Both the labor force participation rate, at 63.2 percent, 

and the employment-population ratio, at 60.7 percent, were 

unchanged in February. Over the year, the labor force 

participation rate changed little, and the employment-population 

ratio was up by 0.3 percentage point. 

 The number of people working part time for economic 

reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time workers) 

declined by 837,000 to 4.3 million in February. This decline 

follows a sharp increase in January that may have resulted from 

the partial federal government shutdown. 

 In February, 1.4 million people were marginally attached 

to the labor force, down 178,000 from a year earlier. (These 

individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were 
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available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the 

last 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they 

had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.) 

Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who 

believe no jobs are available for them, numbered 428,000 in 

February, little different from a year earlier. 

 In summary, nonfarm payroll employment changed little in 

February (+20,000), and the unemployment rate declined to 3.8 

percent.