(04-03-20)
The U.S. Census Bureau announced the following value put in place construction statistics for February 2020: Total Construction – Construction spending during February 2020 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,366.7 billion, 1.3 percent (±0.8 percent) below the revised January estimate of $1,384.5 billion. The February figure is 6.0 percent (±1.2 percent) above the February 2019 estimate of $1,289.0 billion. During the first two months of this year, construction spending amounted to $193.5 billion, 8.2 percent (±1.2 percent) above the $178.8 billion for the same period in 2019. Private Construction – Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,025.8 billion, 1.2 percent (±0.7 percent) below the revised January estimate of $1,038.5 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $564.3 billion in February, 0.6 percent (±1.3 percent)* below the revised January estimate of $567.6 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $461.5 billion in February, 2.0 percent (±0.7 percent) below the revised January estimate of $471.0 billion. Public Construction – In February, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $340.9 billion, 1.5 percent (±1.6 percent)* below the revised January estimate of $345.9 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $79.5 billion, 1.5 percent (±2.6 percent)* below the revised January estimate of $80.7 billion. Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $102.4 billion, 1.2 percent (±4.4 percent)* below the revised January estimate of $103.6 billion. Household Survey Data. In March, the unemployment rate increased by 0.9 percentage point to 4.4 percent. This is the largest over-the-month increase in the rate since January 1975, when the increase was also 0.9 percentage point. The number of unemployed persons rose by 1.4 million to 7.1 million in March. The sharp increases in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus and efforts to contain it. Measures from the household survey pertain to the week of March 8th to March 14th. For more information about how the household survey and its measures were affected by the coronavirus, see the box note at the end of this news release.) In March, unemployment rates rose among all major worker groups. The rate was 4.0 percent for adult men, 4.0 percent for adult women, 14.3 percent for teenagers, 4.0 percent for Whites, 6.7 percent for Blacks, 4.1 percent for Asians, and 6.0 percent for Hispanics. The number of unemployed persons who reported being on temporary layoff more than doubled in March to 1.8 million. The number of permanent job losers increased by 177,000 to 1.5 million. The number of unemployed persons who were jobless less than 5 weeks increased by .5 million in March to 3.5 million, accounting for almost half of the unemployed. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 1.2 million, was little changed in March and represented 15.9 percent of the unemployed. The labor force participation rate, at 62.7 percent, decreased by 0.7 percentage point over the month. Total employment, as measured by the household survey, fell by 3.0 million to 155.8 million, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.0 percent, dropped by 1.1 percentage points over the month. The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons, at 5.8 million, increased by 1.4 million in March. 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. In March, 1.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, little changed from the previous month. These individuals were not in the labor force, 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. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, numbered 514,000 in March, up by 109,000 from the previous month.
