February Unemployment Rate Remains Unchanged At 9.7%

The unemployment rate for the month of February remained unchanged at 9.7%, suggesting that while the job market remains weak, it is not worsening.

The Labor Department said that employers cut 36,000 net jobs whereas economists were expecting job cuts of 50,000 or more. Forecasters believe that snowstorms in some regions of the country led to tens of thousands of reported job losses that were in fact caused by construction, retail, and other workers whose hours were cut to zero because of snow.

That suggests there could be a bounce-back in the payroll numbers in March, creating significant gains. There were 14.9 million unemployed Americans in February, little changed from January.