Was there a change U.S. unemployment numbers in Februrary?

• How did unemployment claims change last month?
• New jobs numbers are out.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms suspicions.

This week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provided unemployment claims numbers.

According to the EFE agency, the number of new applications for unemployment benefits last week was 217,000.

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That figure does not represent a significant change from the previous week’s adjusted data, according to the BLS.

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Unemployment claims in February

In the week of February 24, there were 1 million 906,000 people receiving unemployment benefits, which was 8,000 more than the previous week.

The EFE agency specified that in the week of February 17, unemployment claims increased by 4,032 Massachusetts, 1936 in Rhode Island, 429 in Connecticut, 311 in California and 310 in Missouri.

On the other hand, the numbers decreased in Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan, Oregon and Florida.

The general report for the month of February showed that 275,000 new non-agricultural jobs were generated — that is, 46,000 more than in January when there were 229,000.

Jobs increase overall

According to El Confidencial, based on the Department of Labor statistics, the February jobs numbers far exceeded expectations, as they were expecting 198,000 new jobs.

The average for the last year, which was 230,000 new jobs, was also exceeded.

Job gains in February 2024 were mostly in the healthcare, as well as government, food services, social assistance and transportation sectors.

The corresponding unemployment rate in the U.S. increased to 3.9% during February.

Weekly unemployment claims

Another fact to highlight was that labor force participation remained at 62.5 percent, which represents the third consecutive month at this rate.

The long-term unemployment numbers hold steady at 1.2 million, which represents 18.7% of all unemployed people for the month.

The number of part-time workers who would prefer full-time work totaled 4.4 million in February.

The number of people who want a job is 5.7 million.