Total nonfarm payroll employment edged down by 92,000 in February, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.4%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on May 6. Employment in health care decreased, reflecting strike activity.
Employment in information and federal government continued to trend down.
Both the unemployment rate, at 4.4%, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.6 million, changed little in February. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.0%), adult women (4.1%), teenagers (14.9%), and people who are White (3.7%), Black (7.7%), Asian (4.8%), or Hispanic (5.2%) showed little or no change in February.
