Hidden behind the headline that the U.S. nonfarm economy created 243,000 jobs in February is the fact that U.S. manufacturing lost another 1,000 jobs last month. A decline of jobs in autos and primary metals more than offset February job gains in machinery, petroleum products, and computers and electronic products, U.S. Labor Department data show.
There were 14,228, 000 workers in U.S. manufacturing last month, 10,154,000 of them in production jobs.
During the past 12 months, the manufacturing sector has lost 48,000 jobs, according to Labor Department data.
