by Calculated Risk on 3/07/2025 08:30:00 AM

From the BLS: Employment Situation

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 151,000 in February, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment trended up in health care, financial activities, transportation and warehousing, and social assistance. Federal government employment declined.
...
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised up by 16,000, from +307,000 to +323,000, and the change for January was revised down by 18,000, from +143,000 to +125,000. With these revisions, employment in December and January combined is 2,000 lower than previously reported.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the jobs added per month since January 2021.

Total payrolls increased by 151 thousand in February.  Private payrolls increased by 141 thousand, and public payrolls increased 11 thousand.

Payrolls for December and January were revised down 2 thousand, combined.

The second graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.

In February, the year-over-year change was 1.95 million jobs.  Employment was up solidly year-over-year.

The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.

The Labor Force Participation Rate decreased to 62.4% in February, from 62.6% in January. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force.

The Employment-Population ratio decreased to 59.9% from 60.1% in January (blue line).

I'll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.

The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate increased to 4.1% in February from 4.0% in January.

This was slightly below consensus expectations, and December and January payrolls were revised down by 2,000 combined.  

I'll have more later ...