Opposition material - City Clerk - City of Jonesboro

.t.mployment SltuatlOn Summary
Page 3 of6
Average weekly earnings, I I I I I I
total private I 610.901 612.551 612.721 p61~.051 p615.051 pl.00
~_I ~~__ I I__~_I ~__~_I~_ 1__­
1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.
2 Quarterly averages and the over-the-rronth change are calculated using
un rounded data.
3 Data relate to private production and nonsupervisory workers.
p = preliminary.
- 3 ­
Total Employ:nent and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
The civilian labor force participation rate was about unchanged at 65.6 percent.
The employment-population ralio, at 60.3 percent in February, continued
to trend down. The ratio has declined by 2.4 percentage pcints over the year.
(See table A-I.)
In February, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons
(sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose by 787,000,
reaching 8.6 million. The number of such workers rose by 3.7 million over
the past 12 months. This category includes persons who would like to work
full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back
or because they were unable to find fu~l-time jobs. (See table A-5.)
Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
About 2.1 :nillion persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached
to the labor force in February, 466,000 more than a year earlier.
These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a
job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed
because they had not searched for work in lhe 4 weeks preceding the survey.
Among the marginally attached, there were 731,000 discouraged workers in
February, up by 335,000 from a year earlier. Discouraged workers are persons
not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available
for them. The other 1.3 million persons marginally attached to the
labor force in February had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding
the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.
(See table A-13.)
Industry ayroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)
Total nonfarm payroll employment dropped by 651,000 in February. Slnce
the recession began in December 2007, about 4.~ million jobs have been lost,
with more than half (2.6 million) of the decrease occurring in the last 4
months. In February, employment declined in most major industry sectors,
with the largesl losses occurring in professional and business services,
manufacturing, and construction. Health care continued to add jobs over
the month. (See table B-1.)
Employment in professional and business services fell by 180,000 in
February. The temporary help industry lost 78,000 jobs over the month.
Since December 2007, temporary help employment has declined by 686,000,
or 27 percent. In February, job declines also occurred in services to
build:ngs and dwellings (-17,000), architectural and engineering services
(-16,000), and business support services (-12,000).
Widespread job losses continued in manufacturing in February (-168,000).
The majority of the decline occurred in durable goods industries (-132,000),
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