The numbers for the employment situation in February were released today and the unemployment rate was flat at 9.7% with no change.  The equity market investors rejoiced at the Department of Labor’s report as the numbers were better than expected.  However, it wasn’t that peachy.

36,000 jobs were lost (the consensus was predicting 50,000 jobs lost), meaning about 36,000 people also had to exit the labor force to keep the unemployment rate from changing.  The jobs lost were mainly from construction, which lost 64,000 jobs last month.  The construction industry’s unemployment rate rose from 21.4% this same time last year to 27.1% this year according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA).  Stephen Sandherr, AGCA’s CEO, commented, ”The industry has gone from being a symptom of our economic problems to a victim of them. Until we see meaningful increases in demand for new infrastructure and private sector construction projects, our economy will continue to suffer.”

The number of lost jobs surprised the market as investors anticipated February snow storms to hurt employment numbers.  Due to the hype about February snow storms the Labor Department made a special note stating workers are counted as employed even if they only worked one hour for the pay period.  Not surprisingly, the average workweek fell from 33.3 hours in January to 33.1 hours in February - the snow storms likely placed their effect on this statistic.

On a side note, total U.S. consumer credit rose $4.96 billion in January, its first rise in a year and the largest for any month since mid-2008.  Are consumers finances improving?