U.S. Economy Added 275,000 Jobs in February; Jobless Rate Rises to 4.4%
U.S. Economy Added 275,000 Jobs in Feb.; Jobless Rate 4.4%
Washington, March 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. unemployment
rate unexpectedly crept higher in February to 4.4 percent from
4.3 percent in January even as companies added jobs at a robust
clip.
Last month's increase of 275,000 jobs was above analysts'
forecasts of a gain of 244,000, Labor Department figures showed.
During January, employment gains totaled a revised 217,000, lower
than the government's initial estimate of a gain of 245,000.
Analysts expected a jobless rate of 4.3 percent for last month.
Workers' average hourly earnings, a gauge of business costs,
rose 0.1 percent -- or 1 cent -- to $13.04 in February, following
an increase of 0.4 percent during January, previously reported as
an gain of 0.5 percent.
A rise in the jobless rate suggests ''perhaps you're seeing
a little slowdown,'' said Kevin Flanagan, an economist at Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter in New York, before the report. That will
probably keep Federal Reserve policy-makers from raising interest
rates, Flanagan said. Since November, the economy has added more
than a million jobs.
The rise in February payrolls was telegraphed by other
reports showing a steady drop in claims for state unemployment
benefits, a jump in help-wanted advertising and rising consumer
confidence.
The four-week moving average of new jobless benefit claims
has fallen for six straight weeks, and reached a 10-year low of
290,750 last week, the Labor Department reported yesterday.
Help-Wanted Ads Rise
Also last week, the New York-based Conference Board said its
index of help-wanted ads in 51 newspapers across the country
climbed to 93 in January from December's 88. The index was at 90
a year ago. Help-wanted advertising rose in seven of the nation's
nine major regions surveyed during the past three months.
And the Conference Board's consumer confidence survey last
week showed its component gauging if jobs are ''hard to get''
dropped in February to a record low and its index on whether jobs
are ''plentiful'' rose to a record high.
Those signposts of vigorous job growth also match evidence
that manufacturing -- the only weak spot in the U.S. economy over
the past year -- may be rebounding, while housing and retail
sales are booming.
Orders placed with U.S. manufacturers rose 1.7 percent
during January, the seventh gain in the last eight months, the
Commerce Department reported yesterday.
U.S. stores open at least a year reported their sales rose
7.6 percent during February, according to the Bank of Tokyo/
Mitsubishi index, which tracks about 85 retailers. That was above
an expected 5.5 percent gain and came on top of an 8.3 percent
gain in January.
And while sales of new single-family homes declined 5
percent in January to an annual rate of 918,000 units after
falling to a 966,000-unit pace in December, the monthly total was
the third best of all time. New houses sold at a record annual
rate of 1 million in November.
Report Details
Service-producing employment rose by 263,000 in February,
led by the biggest gain in retail hiring since 1988.
Manufacturing employment decreased by 50,000 last month, bringing
the total job cuts in factory employment to 337,000 since last
March. Construction employment rose by 72,000.
The Labor Department also said:
-- Average weekly hours worked rose to 34.7 in February from 34.5
during January.
-- Manufacturing overtime decreased to 4.5 hours during
February from 4.6 hours during January.
-- The index of hours worked, a gauge of economic growth
that combines changes in the work week and changes in payroll
growth, rose to 147.3 in February from 146.4 during January.
-- Average weekly earnings increased to $452.49 during
February $449.54 during January.
-- The percentage of unemployed workers who voluntarily quit
their jobs in February rose to 12.3 percent from 11.8 percent
during January.
-- The percentage of the U.S. population holding jobs
decreased to 67.3 percent in February from 67.4 percent during
January.
Employment Outlook
In its latest economic forecast, the Federal Reserve
predicted the U.S. unemployment rate will stay close to its
current level throughout over next two years, ranging between
4.25 percent and 4.5 percent. Last year, the unemployment rate
averaged 4.5 percent, the lowest since 1969, during the Vietnam
War.
What's more, a recent survey suggested U.S. companies will
step up their hiring during the second quarter of 1999.
According to Manpower Inc.'s quarterly survey of 16,000
businesses, 29 percent expect to take on more employees during
the second quarter of the year, 6 percent said they'd cut their
workforces, and 61 percent said their employment levels would
remain the same.
That's up from hiring expectations for the current quarter,
which end March 31, according to the Manpower survey.
''We see no deterioration of hiring strength,'' said
Mitchell Fromstein, chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based
personnel company.
Though hiring plans were slowest at U.S. manufacturers, the
''weakness is centered more on new hires than on downsizing
activity,'' Fromstein said. |
