ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990                   TAG: 9003092414
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium


JOBLESS RATE STEADY

The nation's unemployment rate in February held at 5.3 percent for the ninth consecutive month despite the biggest increase in jobs in 20 months, the government said today.

The Labor Department said a survey of employers showed a seasonally adjusted, non-farm job gain of 372,000, the largest since June 1988. However, the department sharply revised its figure for January to a gain of 110,000, down from an earlier estimate of 275,000.

February marked the first increase in factory jobs in 11 months. Manufacturing payrolls added 90,000 workers.

The department cautioned that the job gain, as measured by its survey of employers, was heavily influenced by temporary factors and probably overstates the underlying strength of the economy.

About all of the manufacturing gain was attributed to the return of auto workers after a temporary layoff in January. Factory employment elsewhere was lackluster.

Construction payrolls swelled by 60,000 jobs, the result of unusually mild weather for most of February.

A separate survey of households showed a seasonally adjusted civilian jobless rate of 5.3 percent. The unemployment rate for auto workers, which had zoomed to 20 percent in January, fell back to 8 percent last month.

Overall, total civilian employment edged up to 118 million. The jobless numbered 6.6 million, about the same as January.

Over the rest of this year, many economists forecast a rise in unemployment, but not a big one. The consensus of 51 economists surveyed by the Sedona, Ariz.-based Blue Chip Economic Indicators was for a 5.6 percent rate this year.

That's a shade less optimistic than the Bush administration, which expects a 5.4 percent rate, but in line with Federal Reserve policy-makers, who foresee a rate between 5.5 percent and 5.75 percent.



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