The official national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7 percent in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said moments ago.
Forecasters predicted the rate would rise from 9.7 in January to 9.8 percent in February.
Non-farm payrolls dropped by 36,000 in February. The non-farm payroll job-loss number in January was revised to 20,000.
The February number was statistically not affected by the snowstorms that covered much of the United States, the government said, because it is impossible to know if a worker showed up for an hour of work or a half-day because of bad weather. That doesn’t mean the snow did not affect unemployment; it means that the bureau can’t quantify how the snow affected unemployment.
Yesterday, the number of new jobless claims filed the previous week fell by 29,000, after spiking the week before. The four-week moving average for new jobless claims fell slightly to 470,450, which is a good, but it’s still not low enough for solid job creation. Economists say that consistent job-creation in this economy can’t take place until the weekly jobless claims number gets down into the low 400,000s.
Historically, unemployment has remained high for months — if not quarters — following the end of every recession dating back 40 years. Employers are unlikely to start hiring workers back until they see a couple of positive quarters in a row.
Economists believe that the unemployment figure will hang near 10 percent through at least the remainder of this year, creating problems for incumbent members of Congress seeking re-election in November.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-watch/2010/03/feb_unemployment_rate_remains.html?hpid=topnews&hpid=topnews
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