These measures have shown little net change since early 2022 and remain below their pre-pandemic February 2020 levels, the BLS states. The employment-population ratio held at 60.2% in February, and the labor force participation rate was little changed at 62.5%, compared with 62.4% in January. Additionally, the total number of people working part time fell last month, though the number working part time but who would prefer full time was essentially unchanged,” adds Duncan. Over the last 12 months, wages have grown by 4.6%, slightly faster than last month, indicating that the labor market is still exerting some inflationary pressure in the economy. “We note a divergence in wage growth this month, with wages for all employees growing by 0.2% in February, but wages of production and nonsupervisory employees growing by 0.5%. The number of long-term unemployed-those jobless for 27 weeks or more-at 1.1 million, changed little in February and accounted for 17.6% of the total unemployed. The number of unemployed persons rose to 5.9 million in February, compared to 5.7 million in January. The prime age (25-54) participation rate is now back to the pre-pandemic rate.” "Labor force participation rose by 0.1 percentage point, the third consecutive month of increase, as workers continue to return from the sidelines. In terms of the unemployment rate, Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan says, “In the household survey, the unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points in February to 3.6% however, this increase was a product of the number of people joining the labor force last month exceeding the number who found jobs, as the household employment level still rose by 177,000. Instead, the report was met with the news of the bank run at Silicon Valley Bank, which has pushed 10-year yields down and will likely result in a more conservative Fed,” Zonda chief economist Ali Wolf says. “Today’s stronger than expected jobs report ‘should’ have meant that mortgage rates rose following an increase in the 10-year Treasury, and it would have all but guaranteed a 50-basis-point increase in the Federal Funds Rate later this month. Job growth was notable in leisure and hospitality (+105,000), retail trade (+50,000), government (+46,000), and health care (+44,000), while employment declined in information (-25,000), in transportation (-25,000), and warehousing (-21,500). Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 311,000 in February, according to the latest jobs report from the U.S.
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