WASHINGTON – U.S. employment continued to edge up last month while the nation’s unemployment rate held steady at 4.5 percent, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Employment rose by 97,000 jobs, and employment growth in January was revised upward to 146,000 jobs. Gains in some service industries last month were offset by a sharp decline in construction jobs and a continued decline in manufacturing employment. But average hourly earnings rose by 6 cents (0.4 percent) last month after rising 0.2 percent in January.
The overall unemployment rate has hovered between 4.4 and 4.6 percent since September. That rate was unchanged last month at 4.5 percent, but long-term joblessness – the portion of the unemployed who had been without a job for at least 27 weeks – rose 1.7 points to 17.8 percent.
The unemployment rate for Hispanics edged down in February to 5.2 percent, the BLS said. Rates for other major groups – such as blacks, 7.9 percent; whites, 4.0 percent; and Asians, 2.7 percent – showed little or no change.
The dollar rebounded as the report helped damp speculation that the Federal Reserve might be forced to lower interest rates, according to Bloomberg News.
“The labor market is just quite solid,” Julia Coronado, an economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, told Bloomberg. “This is a very important indication that the economy is on track.”
Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in January, the BLS said in a report yesterday that can be viewed at www.bls.gov.
The South had the lowest January unemployment rate among the four regions at 4.2 percent, followed by the Northeast and West at 4.5 percent and the Midwest at 5.0 percent. No region showed a significant change from December’s rate, but year-over-year declines were seen in the South (down 0.4 percentage points), West (down 0.3 points) and the Northeast (down 0.2 points).
Unemployment rates declined in 26 states in January and the district of Columbia, rose in 18 states and were unchanged in six.
Rhode Island’s unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, a decline of 0.4 percentage points from December and 0.5 percentage points from January 2006. Payroll employment declined 0.2 percentage points over the month to 494,700 workers, but remained well above the year-ago level of 490,000. The state’s workforce in January totaled 580,500.
In Massachusetts, the January jobless rate was 5.3 percent, about the same as in December but an increase of 0.5 percentage points from January 2006. The Bay State gained 29,400 jobs over the year, to a January total of 3.26 million that was little changed from December. The labor force totaled 3.43 million.
Additional information, including the full Employment Situation report, is available at www.bls.gov. A separate statement by BLS Deputy Commissioner Philip L. Rones, explaining the national report, can be viewed as a PDF www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jec.pdf.
