WASHINGTON, DC-The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its February numbers and they are startlingly unstartling. Nonfarm jobs ticked up last month by 236,000, yielding a decrease in unemployment to 7.7%. Employment increased in professional and business services, construction and health care.
In January, 157,000 jobs came online, but unemployment ticked up to 7.9%. The bureau reports that unemployment on net has shown little improvement since September of 2012. There has also been virtually no movement in joblessness by worker groups, including adult men and women, teenagers, blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Among these groups, the rate was highest among teens, registering 25.1%.
Also unchanged for February was the number of long-term unemployed—4.8 million. Defined as those without a job for 27 weeks or more, the long-term unemployed represent 40.2% of the workforce.
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John Salustri
John Salustri has covered the commercial real estate industry for nearly 25 years. He was the founding editor of GlobeSt.com, and is a four-time recipient of the Excellence in Journalism award from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
