The Labor Department has released its Unemployment rate for February. The official figure kept at 9.7% versus a Dow Jones projection of 9.8%. The change in non-Farm Payrolls in February was -36,000, a drop that was lower than expectations but slightly higher than a -26,000 figure revision for January. Estimates were about -75,000 by Dow Jones.
There is a notion that the severe weather in February played a notion in some of the jobs figures. If weather did play a role in February’s data, then the benefits should be seen in March.
Government jobs fell by 18,000 but federal payrolls grew by 7,000. A figure of 15,000 added temporary Census workers helped out.
As far as hours and wages, wages grew to $18.93 per hour from $18.90 and the average work week fell 0.2 hours to 33.1 hours. The hourly drop may also be tied to weather.
The market pundits were very mixed on today’s figures and these figures appear to be having very limited market impact so far.
JON C. OGG
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