The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their report for February and considering the economically oppressive policies of Team Obama for the past 4 years, the report is actually good.

From the main report and Table B:

The Unemployment rate ticked down to 7.9%.

236,000 non-farm jobs were added in February.

Unlike in the recent past, the unemployment rate drop was NOT attributed to more part-time workers since that number stayed the same at about 8.0 million.

Government employment was one of the few areas to drop and they lost 10,000 jobs. No offense to the individuals who lost their government jobs in February but THIS IS A GOOD THING!

The Retail Industry added 23,700 jobs and that is amazing considering last February they shed 24,300 jobs!

The Construction industry added 48,000 jobs and this gives an indication that the Housing market might be coming back.

Even the Manufacturing industry (which is near and dear to my heart!) added 14,000 jobs – Not a lot but it’s maintained those gains over the last few months.

Average hourly earnings (all employees) have continued to rise for the past 3 months – from $23.75 in December 2012 to $23.82 in February 2013 (A 0.3% increase). Average hourly earnings for Production and non-supervisory employees have gone from $19.64 to $20.04 (a 2% increase). If everyone’s pay has increased by 0.3% but the hourly workers have seen increases of 2.0%, which means hourly workers have seen their pay increase more than Management – which dispels a common Leftist meme.

Here is more news from table A and Table A-2 (most of it good unless you are African American or under 20 years old):

The Labor Force Participation rate is the same it was in February 2012 – 63.5% now vs. 63.9% in Feb 2012. This is terrible and the smoking gun of failed Obama policies. Before the last Recession, the Labor Force participation rate was around 66% so this means people have either decided to retire early or the job market is so bad it’s easier to sit home and collect unemployment insurance.

If you are over 20 years old then you are doing better than average in the US. Men over 20 years old have an unemployment rate of 7.1% and women over 20 years old have an unemployment rate of 7.0% (and that is down from 7.7% and 7.6% respectively in Feb 2012).

If you are White then you are doing much better than the average – White unemployment rate is 6.8% as compared to 7.4% in Feb 2012.

If you are Asian then you are doing the best in the US – Asian unemployment rate is 6.1% as compared to 6.3% in Feb 2012.

Now the bad news for African Americans and people under 20 years old (who ironically voted overwhelmingly in favor of Obama in both 2008 and 2012):

The African American Unemployment rate is 13.8% and Teenagers (16-19 years old) have an unemployment rate of 25.1%. And if the Leftists would have their way with raising the minimum wage, teenagers would be hit even harder as many more would lose their jobs since they make up a large percentage of people who work for the minimum wage.

More bad news for those out of work – there were 4.8 million people who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks. The number of people out of work for other time periods – less than 5 weeks, 5-14 weeks and 15-26 weeks has been basically unchanged since the Feb 2012 data and those numbers were 2.7 million, 2.8 million and 1.7 million respectively. It’s still very tough to find a job out there thanks to Obamanomics.

A college education is expensive but if you are looking for motivation to take out that loan and bust your butt for four years then look at this statistic from Table A related to unemployment rates vs. education level for those 25 years and older. Those who have at least a Bachelor’s degree have an unemployment rate of 3.8%. Now compare that to those without a Bachelor’s degree – People with less than a high school diploma have an unemployment rate of 11.2%, those with a High School diploma have an unemployment rate of 8.1% and those with some college or an Associate’s degree have an unemployment rate of 6.7%.

So, as I stated in the opening paragraph, the February BLS Employment Report is actually a decent one. And if you are NOT young, African American or a high school dropout, then the economy, on the average, is actually improving for you.