Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall sharply in February, down 651,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate rose from 7.6 to 8.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Payroll employment has declined by 2.6 million in the past four months.
The number of unemployed persons increased by 851,000 to 12.5 million in February. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by about 5.0 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 3.3 percentage points.
Employment declined in most major industry sectors, with the largest losses occurring in professional and business services, manufacturing, and construction. Health care continued to add jobs over the month of February, with a gain of 27,000. Most of the job growth occurred in ambulatory health care (16,000) and in hospitals (7,000).
Read the summary of February employment data.
