Business sector employment drops 1.5% yr/yr in February

The number of employees at businesses employing at least five people fell by 27,300, or 1.5%, to 1,796,300 in February and was down 2,700 from January. The declines followed continuous year-on-year increase in the number of business sector employees between May 2010 and November 2011.
Business sector employment was up 1.3% 2011 and rose 0.3% in 2010, after falling 6.7% in 2009. Total employment at businesses employing at least five people, in the public sector and at non-profit institutions totaled fell 29,900 or 1.1% from February 2011 to 2,610,500, although rose 28,500 from a month earlier as this year's public work programs were launched after a slow start in January.
Employment in the public sector was down 3,900, or 0.5%, yr/yr at 711,600 in February, but the twelve-month drop was bigger: 18,200, or 2.5%, to 664,000, if people in public work programs are excluded. The 32,000 monthly rise in the number of public sector employees almost exclusively reflected higher employment in the special schemes: the number of those employed in public work programs rose 31,700 from January.
The number was up 14,300 or 43% from a year earlier. In an apparent shift from most of 2011 and from January, more than four-fifths of those employed in public work schemes worked full-time in February. Last year the ratio of full-time workers varied between 24% (April-May) and 57% (December) down from about a two-third ratio in 2010.