Jobs Were up in Textiles, off in Apparel for February

WASHINGTON — The domestic textile industry in February gained a seasonally adjusted 1,000 jobs against January, while the apparel industry lost 3,000 workers, the Labor Department reported Friday.

At retail, general merchandise stores added 27,000 jobs, bringing their payroll to 2.36 million, or 4,600 jobs above the February 1993 level. Apparel and accessory stores in February also posted gains over the year, adding 15,800 jobs for a payroll of 1.1 million workers. For the month, these stores lost 1,000 jobs against January.

Employment in the textile industry over the year remained unchanged, while the apparel industry lost 43,200 workers.

In the overall economy, the unemployment rate in February dipped to 6.5 percent from 6.7 percent in January, a signal touted by economists and the administration as indicating continued economic strengthening. Last month, 217,000 jobs were added to the economy, about half of them in the service industries.

“We’re avoiding a replay of last year’s riches-to-rags slowdown when a meek first quarter followed a robust fourth quarter,” said Robert D. Barr, deputy chief economist with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The gains in employment in the retail sector were singled out as another pocket of job growth. In testimony before the congressional Joint Economic Committee, Katharine G. Abraham described retail employment as recovering jobs caused by poor sales during January’s dismal weather and in spite of February’s cold temperatures.

In January, general merchandise stores dropped 18,000 workers, while apparel and accessory stores lost 17,000.

The Labor Department said manufacturing employment, however, was affected by the continued harsh weather in February. One exception is the textile industry, which American Textile Manufacturers Institute economist David Link said is doing well.

“All the numbers look good,” Link said, noting that in January, the latest month for which figures are available, textile orders were up 1.1 percent against December, and were above shipments, which declined a fraction of a percentage point.

Textile mills also appear more confident about the recovery, Link said. February is the second consecutive month 1,000 workers were added to the industry payroll. Consequently, the average hourly work week for textile workers declined to 43.1 hours in February from January’s 43.7.