The number of long-term unemployed was unchanged at 5.4 million in February.
Employment rose by 227,000 in February, but the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and businesses services, health care and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and mining.
Unfortunately, the number of unemployed persons, officially at 12.8 million but actually several million higher, was unchanged in February. The unemployment rate held at 8.3%, a slight 0.8 percentage points below the August 2011 rate, but the same as January 2012. Long-term unemployment remains at post-Depression record highs.
Without the spin from candidates or incumbants, the U.S. economy remains dogged by long-term unemployment, stagnant or declining real wages and a record high wealth gap – all reasons why automakers are still hedging their 2012 forecasts after strong sales in January and February.
Alan B. Krueger – Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and an employee of President Obama – said, “Today’s employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the economic policies that are helping us dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the recession that began at the end of 2007, including measures to help the sectors that were most severely harmed by the bubble economy that misdirected investment and created too few durable jobs.”
Critics said only the fact that Krueger issued the statement electronically prevented his nose from growing longer while delivering it. Consider: Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.7%), adult women (7.7%), teenagers (23.8%), whites (7.3%), blacks (14.1%), and Hispanics (10.7%) showed little or no change in February. Even the jobless rate for Asians was 6.3%.
The number of long-term unemployed – jobless for 27 weeks and over – was unchanged at 5.4 million in February. These individuals accounted for 42.6% of the unemployed, and this number doesn’t include the down trodden 2 or 3 million people who after years of searching for work have given up.
Nevertheless both the labor force and employment rose slightly in February. The civilian labor force participation rate, at 63.9%, and the employment-population ratio, at 58.6%, edged up over the month.
