By Tom Burnett CFA
On March 4, 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the employment report for February 2022. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 678,000 in February and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 3.8%. The number of unemployed workers is now 6.3 million, edging down to the lowest recent number of 5.7 million in February 2020, before the Covid-19 outbreak decimated the U.S. economy. The unemployment rate in February 2020 was 3.5%.
Total employment is now just 2.1 million or 1.4% below the highest recent level reached in February 2020. At the bottom of the 2020 cycle, the employment level was more than 24 million below the February 2020 high-water mark.
The labor force participation rate was 62.3% in February, still somewhat below the 63.4% level of February 2020.
Manufacturing added 36,000 jobs in February and is now down just 178,000 or 1.4% from the February 2020 level.
Average hourly earnings were little changed in February at $31.58, but that rate increased by 5.1% from one year ago.
The job figures for December and January were revised upwards by a combined 92,000 from previous announcement levels.
The next report will be issued on April 1, 2022.
Tom Burnett CFA is Director of Research