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Payroll employment up in February 2013

March 11, 2013

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000 in February, with job gains in professional and business services, construction, and health care. In the prior 3 months, employment had risen by an average of 195,000 per month.

Nonfarm payroll employment over-the-month change, seasonally adjusted, February 2011–February 2013
MonthEmployment change

Feb 2011

196,000

Mar 2011

205,000

Apr 2011

304,000

May 2011

115,000

Jun 2011

209,000

Jul 2011

78,000

Aug 2011

132,000

Sep 2011

225,000

Oct 2011

166,000

Nov 2011

174,000

Dec 2011

230,000

Jan 2012

311,000

Feb 2012

271,000

Mar 2012

205,000

Apr 2012

112,000

May 2012

125,000

Jun 2012

87,000

Jul 2012

153,000

Aug 2012

165,000

Sep 2012

138,000

Oct 2012

160,000

Nov 2012

247,000

Dec 2012

219,000

Jan 2013

(p)119,000

Feb 2013

(p)236,000

Footnotes:
(p) = preliminary
 

 

Professional and business services added 73,000 jobs in February; employment in the industry had changed little (+16,000) in January. Employment in administrative and support services, which includes employment services and services to buildings, rose by 44,000 in February. Accounting and bookkeeping services added 11,000 jobs, and growth continued in computer systems design and in management and technical consulting services.

In February, employment in construction increased by 48,000; since September, construction employment has risen by 151,000. Job growth occurred in specialty trade contractors, with this gain about equally split between residential (+17,000) and nonresidential specialty contractors (+15,000). Nonresidential building construction also added jobs (+6,000).

The health care industry (part of education and health services) continued to add jobs in February (+32,000). Within health care, there was a job gain of 14,000 in ambulatory health care services, which includes doctors’ offices and outpatient care centers. Employment also increased over the month in nursing and residential care facilities (+9,000) and hospitals (+9,000).

 

One-month change in payroll employment, by industry, February 2013
IndustryChange in payroll employment (p)

Professional and business services

73,000

Construction

48,000

Education and health services

24,000

Leisure and hospitality

24,000

Retail trade

23,700

Information

20,000

Manufacturing

14,000

Financial activities

7,000

Wholesale trade

5,900

Mining and logging

5,000

Utilities

1,400

Other services

1,000

Transportation and warehousing

-1,300

Government

-10,000

Footnotes:
(p) = preliminary
 

 

 

Employment in the information industry increased over the month (+20,000), lifted by a large job gain in the motion picture and sound recording industry.

Employment continued to trend up in retail trade in February (+23,700); retail trade has added 252,000 jobs over the past 12 months. Employment also continued to trend up over the month in food services and drinking places and in wholesale trade. Employment in other major industries showed little change over the month.   

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program and are seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see “The Employment Situation — February 2013” (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-13-0389. More charts featuring CES employment data can be found in Current Employment Statistics Highlights: February 2013 (PDF).

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Payroll employment up in February 2013 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2013/ted_20130311.htm (visited October 31, 2024).

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