Unemployment Rate Falls to 5.5%

More good news for the recovery --

The unemployment rate fell to 5.5% from 5.7% in January, the lowest since May 2008, when the rate was 5.4%.

The civilian labor force participation rate, at 62.8% was little changed in February. It has remained within a narrow range of 62.7 to 62.9 percent since April 2014. It was generally above 66% in the decade before the last recession started in 2007.

Stocks fell hard Friday as Wall Street feared a strong jobs report is likely to speed up the Federal Reserve's rate-hike timetable.

In a sign of strength in the labor market, the government reported a better-than-expected 295,000 jobs were created in February and that the unemployment rate fell more than expected to 5.5%.

usatoday

Well it is logical to assume that there are undocumented, illegal aliens illegally working in the U.S. and it is just as logical to assume that their are illegal aliens in the U.S. who are not working.

I do not follow how you think it is being used to make the numbers look good

The number of Americans filing newclaimsfor unemployment benefits last week rose to its highest level since May, which could raise concerns about some weakness in the labor market.

Other data on Thursday showed nonfarm productivity contracted more sharply than previously thought in the fourth quarter as output failed to keep up with a jump in hours.

Initialclaimsfor state unemployment benefits increased by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 320,000 for the week ended Feb. 28, the highest reading since mid-May, theLabor Departmentsaid on Thursday.

The economy added more than a million jobs between November and January, a feat last seen in 1997. A key measure of labor market slack - the number of job seekers for every open position - hit its lowest level since 2007 in December.

Thursday'sclaimsreport showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid increased 17,000 to 2.42 million in the week ended Feb. 21.

In a second report, the department said productivity fell at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, instead of the 1.8 percent pace it had reported last month.

Compensation per hour rose at a 1.9 percent rate, rather than the 0.9 percent pace reported last month.

That left unit labor costs, a key gauge of inflation and profit pressures that measures the price of labor for any given unit of output, increasing at a 4.1 percent rate in the fourth quarter. That was revised up from the 2.7 percent rate reported last month

csmonitor

We still need to do some serious work on wage disparity, but this is very good news. Any month that the country creates this many jobs it's good news and unemployment is falling and it's not because more people have given up looking for work. It's because more people are getting hired.

Actually the report did say that a lot of people dropped out of the job market thus the drop from 5.7 to 5.5 percent.

Americans may not be too surprised to learn that the 5.6 percent unemployment rate the U.S. Department of Labor is touting is entirely misleading. According to Gallup, the real unemployment rate i s currently 12.6 percent .

- thenewamerican

Why are those nolonger looking for jobs and others not covered under the BLS figures? Because BLS has to make the administration look good.

The economy added 295,000 new jobs in February. That's good new no matter how much you want to twist the numbers to try to make the Obama administration look bad, Or have you forgotten when we were losing 750,000 jobs per month? Would you prefer that number? The truth is, as much as you don't like it, the economy has improved greatly under Obama, in spite of the GOP's efforts to destroy it for political gain. Just imagine how much better we would be if the GOP put the nation over their party and actually tried to create jobs. The GOP is party 1st, country and Americans 2nd. They love their party more then they love this country.

No argument that employment numbers are presented in ways to put them and the party/person presenting them in the best light - that has been going on for as long as the report as been made public

But you specifically tried to insert unemployed illegal aliens into the conversation - not really the point of this thread

Thanks for your perspective

M M

Wages are starting to increase, not fast enough, but it is a start

The article does note that the low participation rate is still a factor in unemployment rate and employment growth in the U.S., but as more jobs are created it should increase as well

CH4P

Actually it said that the labor participation rate was "little changed" and had been little change up or down in nearly a year

1st

The gap between reported unemployment (in the same manner that previous administrations have also reported unemployment) and real underemployment (which includes under-employed and those that have quit looking) is always substantial.

Thanks for the perspective

M M

The economy added 295,000 new jobs in February

That is indeed good news, but the other factors should not be overlooked in order to make the administration look better anymore than that number should be discounted to make the administration look bad.

The economy has improved under President Obama, but it is still too early in the process to label the recovery "great", many still think the recovery is a staggering and slow affair, but you are right things are getting better slowly.

Listen you have an agenda with immigration policy and an agenda with Obama in general, I get that

Write or seed an article aboutone or both of those topicsand share your perspective

The employment of illegal aliens in the U.S. is a miniscule part of the unemployment problem we are facing

And by the way if in fact you actually read the BLS labor report that comes out monthly, it will provide the number of unemployed in the U.S. for the reporting period and compare it to previous periods. It is not a number that is highlighted in the press about the monthly report, but the data is there if you care to look for it

N T #1

Not specifically true

For what the number represents (flawed though that method of calculating employment and unemployment may be) it is a metric that has been used (many say misused) consistently by administrations for many year.

So long as one takes the time to read the monthly jobs reports and look at all of the metrics and analysis and not focus on one metric that they do not like the methodology of, real insight into unemployment and employment is possible.

Stopping the discussion of a controversial issue is never the right answer

Thanks for sharing your perspective

N T #1

Nice cut and paste but unnecessary I read the BLS Report every month

Is there anything in particular you wanted to talked about or just dropping in the data?

One person's view (Cummans) from nearly three years ago

Thanks for sharing

Do you have any perspective to share on the data you pasted in?

N T #1

You can only be lied to if you permit it, when all of the data is available for people to read and understand on their own

The economy has been somewhat stagnant and wages are dismally stagnant in recent years, but improvement in the economy is occurring

Throwing your hands up and saying the numbers are a lie and saying their is nothing to be done further, is the wrong approach if you want to participate in change.

But go ahead give up, accept the status quo and hate on those you think responsible and give not a thought to change

Thanks for sharing your perspective and all of the c&p data

Take a breath, the report is an inanimate object "it" does not lie, it presents various metrics regarding the economy and employment

The interpretation assigned to those numbers by the talking heads may or may not be accurate "as you see the issues" and I can accept that but there is a lot of valid data in the report if you take the time to read and understand the data

And you cannot look at one report, your must look at the trends of the metrics and the historical relevance on the changing metrics.

That is the reality of the BLS monthly report, don't like the report - oh well!

More good news for the recovery --

The unemployment rate fell to 5.5% from 5.7% in January, the lowest since May 2008, when the rate was 5.4%.

It is great news. Though there will always be people who hate the administration so much that if they managed to get the unemployment down to zero they'd still find something to bitch about. They twist the numbers and "look behind them" to find what they want to find to try to be as gloomy about the economy as possible because they will not accept that it is a lot better then when the President took office and the parts that they ARE willing to admit are better, have to be because of something the GOP did. They are a joke.