FOR DELIVERY: 9:30 A.M., E.S.T.
                            FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2000

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the
press under lock-up conditions with the explicit
understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m.
Eastern Standard Time.


                        Statement of

                    Katharine G. Abraham
                        Commissioner
                 Bureau of Labor Statistics

                         before the
                  Joint Economic Committee
                   UNITED STATES CONGRESS

                    Friday, March 3, 2000


Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

     I would like to thank you for the opportunity to comment
on the labor market data released this morning.

     The unemployment rate, at 4.1 percent in February,
changed little over the month and has been below 4.2 percent
since last October.  A nominal increase of 43,000 in payroll
employment in February followed a large weather-related gain
of 384,000 in January.  The average monthly gain for the 2
months (214,000) is about in line with the monthly average
for 1999 (226,000).

     In the goods-producing sector of the economy,
construction employment decreased by 26,000 in February.
This decline followed an exceptionally large increase of
116,000 in January (after seasonal adjustment), which
reflected unusually mild weather during the survey reference
period for that month.  In 1999, the industry added 220,000
jobs, or an average of 18,000 jobs per month.

     Manufacturing employment edged up by 5,000 in February.
The nation's factories have added 31,000 jobs over the past 4
months, after shedding 527,000 jobs from March 1998 through
October 1999.  Recent gains have been concentrated among
durable goods manufacturers, notably in the electrical
equipment, auto, industrial machinery, and fabricated metals
industries.  While there has been no net job gain among the
producers of nondurable goods in recent months, the downward
trend in employment in nondurable goods manufacturing has
abated somewhat since last August.  The factory workweek and
overtime hours each rose by 0.2 hour in February, to 41.9 and
4.8 hours, respectively.

     In mining, employment in oil and gas extraction
continued to inch up in February.  The industry has added
9,000 jobs since August 1999.  These gains undoubtedly
reflect the rise in oil prices that began early in 1999.

     Job growth was sluggish throughout most of the service-
producing sector in February.  Employment in transportation
and public utilities changed little for the second month in a
row.  In transportation, there were small job losses in both
trucking and air transportation in February, and employment
in public utilities continued to drift downward.

     Services employment showed essentially no growth in
February, after seasonal adjustment.  This follows a gain of
142,000 jobs in January, which was slightly above the average
monthly growth for the industry in 1999 (121,000).  Some of
the February weakness reflected declines in industries that
had posted large weather-related increases in January, such
as agricultural services and amusement and recreation
services, but other services industries less prone to unusual
seasonal fluctuations also were weak in February.  Employment
in business services was essentially unchanged over the
month, compared with its average growth in 1999 of just under
50,000 jobs per month, and health services added only 6,000
jobs, about half of its average monthly gain.  Several other
services industries, including social services and legal
services, also exhibited weakness over the month.  One
notable exception was engineering and management services,
which continued a strong growth trend, adding 15,000 jobs.

     Employment in wholesale trade edged up by 8,000 in
February, about half of its growth trend in 1999.  At the
retail trade level, employment was up by 33,000 over the
month, slightly under its average monthly gain for 1999.
February job increases among department stores (after
seasonal adjustment) and furniture stores more than offset a
small decline in eating and drinking places.

     Finance, insurance, and real estate added 10,000 jobs,
reversing a loss of 6,000 in January.  Within finance, an
employment increase in security brokerages was largely offset
by small losses in a variety of other finance industries.
Federal government employment rose by 20,000 in February,
with all of the gain due to the hiring of temporary workers
for the upcoming Census.

     Average weekly hours of production or nonsupervisory
workers on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 0.1 hour
over the month to 34.5 hours.  Average hourly earnings of
private production or nonsupervisory workers rose by 4 cents
to $13.53.  Over the year, average hourly earnings rose by
3.6 percent.

     Moving on to the data from our survey of households, as
I mentioned earlier, the unemployment rate was essentially
unchanged in February at 4.1 percent, and it has remained
under 4.2 percent since October 1999.  The jobless rates for
adult men, adult women, whites, blacks, and Hispanics showed
little change in February.  The rate for teenagers edged up
to 14.1 percent, returning to near its December 1999 level.

     The labor force participation rate ticked up a tenth of
a percentage point over the month to a record high level of
67.6 percent, and the employment-population ratio held at a
record high 64.8 percent.  The number of persons who held
more than one job totaled 7.7 million (not seasonally
adjusted) in February.  These multiple jobholders made up 5.8
percent of the total employed, down slightly from 6.1 percent
a year earlier.

     Among persons not in the labor force, there were about
1.3 million individuals (not seasonally adjusted) who were
classified as "marginally attached" to the labor market in
February, about the same as a year ago.  These are persons
who want and are available to work and looked for employment
at some point in the past year, but are not currently
searching for a job.  The number of discouraged workers, a
subset of this group who have stopped looking for work
because they believe their search would be pointless, was
262,000 in February (not seasonally adjusted), also about the
same as the year-ago level.

     In summary, the unemployment rate was little changed at
4.1 percent in February, and payroll employment rose
marginally, following a large weather-related gain in
January.

     My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your
questions.

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