March 10, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payrolls in February 2008

Total nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-63,000) in February, with private-sector employment declining by 101,000.

Over-the-month change in payroll employment, Febuary 2007-Febuary 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed in December (41,000) and January (-22,000).

Over the month, job losses occurred in manufacturing, construction, and retail trade. Health care and food services continued to add jobs.

These data are from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program, and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. More information can be found in "The Employment Situation: February 2008" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 08-0294.