WASHINGTON – The nation’s unemployment rate rose in February to 8.1 percent, “the highest rate in more than 25 years,” as non-farm employment shrank for the 14th consecutive month, according to data released today by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The sharp and widespread contraction in the labor market continued in February,” with unemployment climbing to its highest level since December 1983, BLS Commissioner Keith Hall told Congress’ Joint Economic Committee this morning.

The jobless rate nationwide had been expected to rise last month to 7.9 percent – from January’s 7.6 percent (READ MORE) – based on the median forecast from a survey of 80 economists by Bloomberg News. (Their estimates of the February rate ranged from 7.8 percent to 8.1 percent.)

Instead, it climbed 0.5 percentage points compared with the month before, and 3.3 percentage points compared with February 2008’s jobless rate of 4.8 percent. (READ MORE)

“Non-farm payroll employment fell by 651,000, following [revised] declines of 681,000 in December and 655,000 in January,” Hall said. The bureau’s upward revisions added 161,000 positions to the job-loss totals for January and December.

“Since the recession began in December 2007, job losses have totaled 4.4 million, well more than half of which [2.6 million job losses] occurred in the past four months.”

The losses were widespread, the BLS commissioner noted.

“Manufacturing employment declined by 168,000 in February,” to 1.3 million jobs fewer than at the beginning of the recession, he said. “Employment has fallen in nearly all manufacturing industries during this period.” The average work week for manufacturing production workers shrank to 39.6 hours last month from 39.8 in January and 39.9 in December, while average overtime fell to 2.6 hours from the revised 2.8 hours in January and 3.0 in December, the BLS said.

“Construction employment fell by 104,000 in February, with losses throughout the sector,” Hall said. “This industry has shed 904,000 jobs since the recession began, with about half of the decline occurring in the past four months.”

Likewise, “employment continued to decline sharply throughout most of the service-providing sector. Professional and business services employment dropped by 180,000, including 78,000 jobs lost at temporary-help agencies,” where employment is down 686,000 since the recession began. “Other large over-the-month job losses occurred in transportation and warehousing (-49,000), especially trucking; financial activities (-44,000); retail trade (-40,000); and wholesale trade (-37,000).”

But in the health care sector, “employment continued to grow with an increase of 27,000 in February – about in line with its recent trend.”

Average hourly earnings for private-sector production and nonsupervisory workers rose 0.2 percent in February – to $18.47 per hour from January’s revised $18.44 – after rising 0.2 percent in January and 0.3 percent in December, the BLS said. That raised their average weekly earnings to $615.05 last month from $614.05 the month before and $612.72 in December. Their average work week was steady at 33.3 hours, unchanged from January and December, the bureau said.

“Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 3.6 percent,” Hall noted. But part of that increase can be attributed to the higher job losses among lower-paid workers.

“Since the recession began, the rise in unemployment has been concentrated among persons who lost jobs, as opposed to job-leavers or people joining the labor force,” Hall noted. “From December 2007 to February 2009, the number of job losers has doubled to 7.7 million, and their share of total unemployment has risen from 50.0 to 62.3 percent.

“The number of unemployed individuals experiencing long spells of joblessness also has risen. In February, 2.9 million persons had been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, up from 1.3 million at the start of the recession,” he continued.

“Among the employed, the number of persons working part time who would prefer to be working full time climbed sharply” to 8.6 million underemployed workers, “an increase of 787,000 over the month and nearly 4 million since the recession began.”

In a statement after the report, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairman of the congressional Joint Economic Committee, said that “the magnitude of these losses indicates that additional measures will likely be needed. As unemployment continues to rise, our foreclosure crisis will only grow worse.”

Recent reports have shown that more than 103,000 individuals and companies filed for bankruptcy protection in February, while by the end of the fourth quarter, the real estate slump had left about 8.3 million homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their properties were worth, Bloomberg News reported.

Meanwhile, in Rhode Island – which this week reported the local jobless rate hit 10.3 percent in January (READ MORE) – the state Department of Labor and Training today announced it will borrow money from the federal government, interest-free, to help cover the cost of unemployment claims. (READ MORE)

“The economy is going to be in this recession a little longer than expected,” John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., told Bloomberg Television.

Additional information, including the 30-page Employment Situation Summary and the BLS Commissioner’s Statement on the Employment Situation release, is available from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov.