Half a Million Jobs Created Last Month : Unemployment Down to 5.7%, Lowest Since ’79

The nation’s economy created half a million jobs last month, dropping the unemployment rate to 5.7%, its lowest since the summer of 1979 during the Carter Administration, the government said today.

Total employment grew 280,000, the Labor Department’s monthly household survey said, with the number of jobless Americans falling 108,000 to 6.9 million.

January’s jobless rate had been 5.8%.

Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater applauded the news, saying that “these strong employment gains confirm that the longest peacetime expansion in U.S. history continued into its 63rd month. Jobs are the best indicator of a sound economy.”

(In California, unemployment rose from 5.1% to 5.4%.)

A separate survey of business payrolls showed a net increase of 531,000 jobs in February, 40% of which were in service industries. Health services added 60,000 workers while business services added 55,000.

Retail trade employment, adjusted for seasonal variations, climbed by 110,000 despite evidence of declines in consumer spending.

The commissioner of labor statistics, Janet L. Norwood, said the gains in retail-trade employment reflect “post-Christmas cutbacks this year that have been much smaller than usual.”

The only service industries that did not show job gains were finance, insurance and real estate. In finance, which includes banks, savings and loans, and investment houses, employment actually fell by 10,000 after several months of minimal increases.

Meanwhile, factory job growth, which had been averaging 50,000 jobs a month, moderated in February, with a gain of just 20,000. Employment in the furniture and electronic equipment industries fell 3,000 while automobile industry employment held steady at 822,000.

Construction jobs jumped 105,000 after a drop of 60,000 in the preceding month.

The percentage of the nation’s adult population with jobs rose to a record 62.2% in February. The Labor Department said recent job growth has been particularly strong in the administrative and management areas, accounting for more than one-third of the growth of 3 million jobs in total civilian employment over the last year.

The biggest beneficiary of that trend and the recent rebound in manufacturing and construction has been adult men, whose jobless rate has dropped from 5.8% in February, 1987, to 4.9% last month.

The jobless rate for women, also at 5.8% a year ago, was 5.2% in February.

Jobless rates for minority groups remained high despite the fact that blacks and Latinos have obtained one of every three new jobs over the last year.