News wire – The United States labour force participation rate stood at 62.5 percent in February, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics, US Department of Labour.
The Bureau also said in its ‘Employment Situation – February 2023’ report, that employment-population ratio held at 60.2 percent, adding that the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons stood at 4.1 million.
“In February, the labour force participation rate was little changed at 62.5 percent, and the employment-population ratio held at 60.2 percent.
“These measures have shown little net change since early 2022 and remain below their pre-pandemic February 2020 levels (63.3 percent and 61.1 percent, respectively.
“The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.1 million, was essentially unchanged in February. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.
“The number of persons not in the labour force who currently want a job was little changed at 5.1 million in February. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job,” the report said.
It added that, among those not in the labour force who wanted a job, the number of persons marginally attached to the labour force was little changed at 1.4 million in the month under review.
The report stated that these individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, also changed little over the month at 363,000, the report further indicated.
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