Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 
under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 
the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.


                            Statement of

                          Erica L. Groshen
                            Commissioner
                     Bureau of Labor Statistics

                       Friday, March 6, 2015


      Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 295,000 in 
February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.5 percent. 
Employment rose in food services and drinking places, 
professional and business services, construction, health care, 
and in transportation and warehousing. Mining employment fell 
over the month.
  
      Incorporating the revisions for December and January, which 
reduced nonfarm employment by 18,000 on net, monthly job gains 
have averaged 288,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 months 
prior to February, employment growth averaged 266,000 per month.

      Food services and drinking places added 59,000 jobs in 
February, compared with an average monthly gain of 35,000 over 
the prior 12 months.   

      Professional and business services employment increased by 
51,000 in February. Employment continued to trend up in 
management and technical consulting services (+7,000), computer 
systems design and related services (+5,000), and architectural 
and engineering services (+5,000). Elsewhere in professional and 
business services, employment in temporary help services was 
little changed over the month.

      Construction employment rose by 29,000 in February, about 
in line with job gains in the industry over the prior 12 months.  
In February, employment rose by 27,000 in specialty trade 
contractors, including a gain of 17,000 in the residential 
component.

      Health care employment increased by 24,000 over the month, 
with job gains in ambulatory care services and in hospitals. 
Over the past 12 months, health care has added 356,000 jobs.

      Transportation and warehousing employment rose by 19,000 in 
February. This job gain occurred mostly in couriers and 
messengers (+12,000).

      In retail trade, employment continued to trend up over the 
month (+32,000). Over the past year, retailers have added 
319,000 jobs.

      Employment in manufacturing continued to trend up in 
February (+8,000). Within nondurable manufacturing, employment 
in petroleum and coal products fell by 6,000, largely due to a 
strike.

      Employment in mining fell by 9,000 over the month, mostly 
in support activities for mining.   

      Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 
payrolls rose by 3 cents in February to $24.78. Over the past 12 
months, average hourly earnings have risen by 48 cents, or 2.0 
percent. From January 2014 to January 2015, the Consumer Price 
Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) declined by 0.2 percent.

      Turning now to our survey of households, both the 
unemployment rate, at 5.5 percent, and the number of unemployed 
persons, at 8.7 million, edged down in February. Both measures 
were down over the year, by 1.2 percentage points and 1.7 
million, respectively. 

      In February, the number of unemployed persons who had been 
jobless for 27 weeks or more was little changed at 2.7 million. 
These individuals accounted for 31.1 percent of the total 
unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term 
unemployed is down by 1.1 million.

      The labor force participation rate was little changed at 
62.8 percent in February and has remained within a narrow range 
of 62.7 to 62.9 percent since April 2014. 

      The employment-population ratio, at 59.3 percent, was 
unchanged in February. Over the year, the employment-population 
ratio is up by 0.5 percentage point.

      In February, the number of people working part time for 
economic reasons was 6.6 million, little changed over the month. 
These individuals, who would have preferred full-time 
employment, were working part time because their hours had been 
cut back or because they were unable to find full-time work.

       Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 
in February, 2.2 million were classified as marginally attached 
to the labor force, little changed over the year. These 
individuals had not looked for work in the 4 weeks prior to the 
survey but wanted a job, were available for work, and had looked 
for a job within the last 12 months. The number of discouraged 
workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 
no jobs were available for them, was 732,000 in February, also 
little changed over the year.

      In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 295,000 
in February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.5 
percent.