
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991                   TAG: 9103080773
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

JOBLESS RATE SURGES TO 6.5%

The nation's unemployment rate surged to 6.5 percent in February, its highest rate in four years, as about 450,000 Americans were added to jobless rolls, the government reported today.

The 0.3 percentage point rise in the civilian jobless rate, up from January's rate of 6.2 percent, was the largest one-month increase since 1986, the Labor Department said.

America's unemployment rate has now climbed steadily since last June, when it was holding at a relatively low rate of 5.3 percent.

During that eight-month period, about 1.6 million Americans have been added to the ranks of the unemployed. In February alone, about 450,000 people lost their jobs and joined the unemployment line, the government said.

Payrolls fell by 185,000 in February for the eighth consecutive month of job declines. The job loss number can differ from the number of newly unemployed because the two figures are derived from different surveys.

It has been the worst stretch of layoffs since the 1981-82 recession. The overall 185,000-job loss in February from non-farm payrolls was far worse than the 100,000decline most analysts had expected.

The bulk of the job losses came in manufacturing, where there has been a steady erosion for the past two years.

In February, factory payrolls fell by 127,000, bringing the total job loss in that sector to more than 1 million since January 1989, the Labor Department said.

But the job losses were widespread, hitting service industries as well.

Washington policy-makers are hoping the end of the Persian Gulf War fuels a rebound in consumer confidence that helps turn the economy around. But private analysts say even if that does occur, businessmen won't start rehiring workers until a recovery is well under way. They expect unemployment to worsen to 7 percent or higher by midsummer, putting as many as 1 million additional Americans out of work.

Today's report showed that despite relatively mild weather in February, construction employment showed only a slight rebound, as 27,000 jobs were added, following a drop of about 150,000 jobs in January. The recent string of job losses in this industry totals about 425,000 since last May.

Meanwhile, service-producing industries lost about 86,000 jobs in February, including a loss of 70,000 jobs in retail trade. In transportation, there was a 36,000 cutback, reflecting temporary layoffs and job terminations in the airline industry and continued declines in trucking, the Labor Department said.

by CNB