Favorable Weather Boosted Employment by About 100,000 in February

The BLS reported 275 thousand non-farm jobs were added in February.   During the Winter months, I like to look at the weather impact on the report.

The BLS reported 243 thousand people were employed in non-agriculture industries, with a job, but not at work due to bad weather. The average for February over the previous 10 years was 368 thousand (median 272 thousand), so fewer people than normal were impacted by bad weather.

The BLS also reported 633 thousand people that are usually full-time employees were working part time in February due to bad weather.  The average for February over the previous 10 years was 1.55 million (the median was 694 thousand).  This series suggests weather positively impacted employment more than usual.

The San Francisco Fed estimates Weather-Adjusted Change in Total Nonfarm Employment (monthly change, seasonally adjusted). They use local area weather to estimate the impact on employment. For February, the San Francisco Fed estimated that weather boosted employment by about 100 thousand jobs.