160,315,000: Record Number of Americans Employed in February

As usual, notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, retail trade, government, and health care. The number of employed Americans set another record, the third once since December, increasing by 177,000 to 160,315,000 in February, which is up from 160,138,000 in January and 159,244,000 in December. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for Hispanics (5.3 percent) increased in February. With these revisions, employment gains in December and January combined were 34,000 lower than previously reported. Powell noted that the unemployment rate was 3.4 percent in January, its lowest level since 1969.