Employment Rises in February

Do you remember February?  Only 28 days, and yet a lot seemed to happen!

Maybe you are only just getting around to understanding what happening in Egypt and Wisconsin because you’ve been busy trying to place people in the right positions for them.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it seems that employment was significantly up in February.  Are recruiters noticing this upswing in employment?

Total nonfarm employment rose by 192,000 in February 2011.  Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, manufacturing, construction, and transportation and warehousing.  Since a recent low in February 2010, total payroll employment has grown by 1.3 million, or an average of 106,000 per month.

Employment in the service-providing sector continued to expand in February 2011, led by a gain of 47,000 in professional and business services.  Health care employment continued to increase in February 2011 (+34,000). Over the prior 12 months, health care had added 260,000 jobs, or an average of 22,000 jobs per month.

Manufacturing employment rose by 33,000 in February 2011.  Manufacturing has added 195,000 jobs since its most recent trough in December 2009; durable goods manufacturing added 233,000 jobs during this period.

Construction employment grew by 33,000 in February 2011, following a decline of 22,000 in January that may have reflected severe winter weather.  Transportation and warehousing employment increased by 22,000 in February 2011; half of that gain was in truck transportation (+11,000).