February Employment / Unemployment Report

February 2022 Unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Adjusted U-3 was Down from 4.0% to 3.8%
Unadjusted U-3 was Down from 4.4% to 4.1%
Unadjusted U-6 was Down from 7.9% to 7.6%
Labor Force Participation Up from 62.2% 62.3%
Unadjusted Employment rose from 147. 510 million to 148. 964 million

February 2022 Unemployment report:

AP says: Strong Job Growth Points to COVID’s Fading Grip on Economy “Employers added a robust 678,000 jobs in February, the largest monthly total since July, the Labor Department reported Friday.”

CNBC says: U.S. unemployment rate falls in February, but ticks up for Black women “The unemployment rate for Black women ticked up to 6.1% in February from 5.8% in the previous month.”

According to the Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 678,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.8 percent. Employment growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, health care, and construction. Employment is down by 2.1 million, or 1.4 percent, from its level before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in February 2020.

In February, employment growth continued in leisure and hospitality (+179,000) with job gains in food services and drinking places (+124,000) and accommodation (+28,000). “

As usual, they are talking about “Seasonally Adjusted Jobs” from the “Current Population Survey (CPS)” rather than looking at the results reported by actual companies in their “Current Employment Statistics survey (CES)”

But looking at the CES report we see…
Originally the BLS reported employment of 147.525 million for January which they adjusted to 147.510 million. So 15,000 jobs disappeared for January. But they are reporting 148.964 million jobs for February which is actually an increase of 1,439,000 jobs based on their original estimates or an increase of 1,454,000 based on their updated numbers.

ADP National Employment Report

In addition to the BLS, we can look at the Jobs Report generated by private companies like ADP Research Institute.

The interesting thing about ADP data is that they also provide breakdowns based on company size. Small businesses with 1-49 employees lost -96,000 jobs, midsized businesses with 50-499 Employees gained 18,000 jobs and large companies with 500 or more employees gained 552,000 jobs. So the big winners were large companies.

Unemployment Historically Low

In signs of an overheated economy, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to find qualified workers and unemployment is nearing historical lows.

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February 2022 Labor Force Participation Rate

LFPR breaks out of its recent channel but is still well below Jan-Feb 2020 levels.

As we explain in the page on the Labor Force Participation Rate, the BLS has a strange definition of Labor Force Participation, and so if you “want a job” but don’t look, you aren’t in the Labor Force.

February 2022 Employment by Sector

The employment “bubble chart” is a quick and easy way to see how each sector performs on a seasonally adjusted basis. The Bubble’s Size tells us total Employment for that industry (i.e., larger bubbles mean more people are employed in that sector).

The bubble’s location on the chart tells us that there is a change in Employment Levels over the most recent month… The further to the right the bubble, the larger the number of jobs, and the higher up on the chart, the larger the average salary.

Average weekly wages up from $1,086.46 in December to $1,095.83 in February.

Click for larger Image

Remember these are Seasonally Adjusted Numbers! Once again, Leisure and Hospitality was the largest gainer with 179,000 new jobs. Education and Health gained 112,000 jobs and Professional and Business Services gained 95,000 jobs.

Employment and Average Weekly Earnings by Industry

February 2022, Seasonally Adjusted Employment

Average Weekly Earnings up from $1,091.24 in January.

Industry	Monthly Increase	Average Weekly Earnings	Employment Level
Total Private Employment	654,000	$1,095.83	128,201,000
Mining and Logging	9,000	$1,602.00	600,000
Construction	60,000	$1,342.84	7,613,000
Manufacturing	36,000	$1,237.69	12,607,000
Wholesale trade	18,300	$1,355.54	5,780,300
Retail trade	36,900	$694.03	15,701,200
Transportation and Warehousing	47,600	$1,053.36	6,378,400
Utilities	0	$1,955.91	539,100
Information	0	$1,699.41	2,923,000
Financial Activities	35,000	$1,516.03	8,901,000
Professional and Business Services	65,000	$1,393.50	21,989,000
Education and Health Services	112,000	$1,044.87	24,084,000
Leisure and Hospitality	179,000	$499.23	15,451,000
Other Services	25,000	$921.13	5,634,000

But looking at Employment Change by Industry over the last 12 months, we can see that Government gained 356,000 jobs over the year.

Source: BLS

Employment-Population Ratio

This chart shows the actual percentage of the population that’s working, unlike the Labor Force Participation Rate, which shows the portion of the population working or looking for work. The Annual Average Employment-Population Ratio for 2021 was 58.3%.

By looking at annual averages rather than monthly numbers, we can see the long-term trends in the percentage of the population that is working. For more information and the full commentary on these trends, see Employment-Population Ratio.

Seasonally Adjusted U1 through U6 Unemployment Rates

For more information about the various measurements of unemployment, see What Is U-6 Unemployment?

Current February 2022 Employment

February employment increased but is still well below February 2020 and November 2019 levels, plus the Civilian Non-Institutional Population (not the total Census Bureau Population) has increased since then.

See Current Employment for more info.