Staff Solve strives to assist employers and job seekers with information and process hiring, but the overall economic picture of employment trends in the United States and possible factors involved.  The unemployment rate (6.2%) and the number of unemployed persons (10 million) changed little in February when compared to the previous month. Although both are lower than the data from April 2020, they are still larger than the data from February 2020.

Little change was seen in unemployment for adult men and women as well as teenagers. The number of persons temporarily laid off decreased by 517,000  while the number of permanent job exterminations remained unchanged when compared to January’s data. 

Those unemployed 27 weeks or longer and the number of persons unemployed less than 5 weeks remained unchanged as well. The data, however, is still larger than the data from one year previous but lower than April 2020’s numbers. Individuals who worked part-time even though they preferred full-time employment remained unchanged as well. Individuals who wanted a job but did not actively search or were unable to take a job opportunity were not included in the analysis. 

22.7 percent of the workforce teleworked due to the pandemic but has decreased when compared to last month. However, 4.2 million people were prevented from looking for opportunities due to the pandemic, a 500,000 decrease from January.

For February, the most job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, with smaller gains in temporary service, health care and social assistance, retail, and manufacturing. Sadly, state and local government education, construction, and mining experience decreases. Leisure and hospitality increased 355,000, with four-fifths of the industry increased specifically in food services and drinking places. Accommodations increased 36,000 with amusements, gambling, and recreation following, adding 33,000.

Professional and business services, specifically temporary help services, added 53,000 jobs. Health care and social assistance increased by 46,000, with jobs gains in ambulatory health care services by 29,000, and social assistance following at 26,000. Retail added 41,000 opportunities, with the largest increase in general merchandise stores (14,000), health care and personal care stores following at 12,000, and food and beverage by 10,000. Manufacturing increased 21,000 since January, with transportation equipment adding 10,000 as smaller sectors within the industry totaling 11,000. 

Employment declined in local government education by 37,000 and state government education by 32,000. Pandemic-related employment data from 2020 caused normal patterns of layoffs and employment to skew still, especially in the education sector, making it challenging to brush off their current industry trends. Construction fell 21,000, especially in specialty trade contractors (37,000) and heavy and civil engineering construction by 21,000. However, the decrease in the industry is heavily believed to occur due to the winter storm that crossed the country, halting and pausing projects and timelines. Mining lost 8,000 jobs, notably in support activities for mining and in oil and gas extraction. Other major industries such as wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities and more, experience little to no change.

In February, average earnings for employees on private payrolls increased by seven cents, resulting in a total of $30.01. Average earnings for private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees changed little. Working hours for employees on private payrolls decreased 0.3 hours, while manufacturing declined 0.2 hours and overtime by 0.1 hours.

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February 2021 Employment Summary

February 2021 Employment Summary