U.S. adds 243,000 jobs in February

For February, construction employment in the United States posted the highest increase of any industry with 41,000 new jobs, bringing the sector’s job creation to 346,000 in the last year.

Construction jobs represented nearly one-fifth of the 243,000 total nonfarm jobs created across the country in February. About 2.1 million jobs have been added in the last year, and payroll employment has increased for 30 consecutive months.

The U.S. unemployment rate rose slightly in February to 4.8 percent, though the rate is significantly lower than the 6.3 percent rate reported in June 2003. Since then, nearly 5 million jobs have been created.

The unemployment rate represents 7.2 million unemployed people, 19 percent of whom are long-term unemployed workers.

“Total employment and the labor force continued to trend up in February,” said Kathleen Utgoff, commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in a statement. “However, the employment-population ratio has held steady in recent months, and the labor force participation rate has shown little movement for about two and a half years.”

The largest job losses were in motor vehicles and parts and primary metals, while employment in oil and gas operations continued to rise.

Gains occurred in the financial activities sector, which added 22,000 jobs in February, reflecting increases in depository institutions and insurance carriers.

Health care employment also increased with the creation of 18,000 jobs, attributed to the continued growth in hospitals, doctors’ offices and home health care.

Also included in the report was an employment update of approximately 1 million workers who evacuated their homes in August when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. As of February, about half of those had returned to their homes.

Among the evacuees identified in February, 58.1 percent were in the labor force, and their unemployment rate was 12.6 percent. The rate for those who had returned home was 4.8 percent, and the rate for those who had not was 22.6 percent.

U.S. Sen. Kit Bond and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, both southwest Missouri congressmen, each attributed February’s job gains to a Congressional focus on being financially responsible and increasing economic opportunity.

“We’ve lowered taxes to grow businesses and create jobs; we’ve passed an energy bill to reduce the cost of doing business and create jobs,” Blunt said in a news release. “We’ve passed a permanent repeal of the death tax to limit the cost of compliance and create jobs.”

In a separate statement, Bond added, “The numbers released today are signs that the economy is responding positively to Congress’ fiscally-disciplined agenda. Congress needs to act now, make the tax cuts permanent and keep the economy’s momentum going.”[[In-content Ad]]