Industry adds 16,000 positions during the month, but total employment is still down by 294,000 year over year.

Residential building added 16,300 jobs and specialty trade contractors added11,200 but nonresidential building lost 9,300.

Report also shows industry's unemployment rate rose from February and year-earlier level.

All construction sectors added jobs in Feb., led by specialty trade contractors segment.

Unemployment rate rises to 5.4% from December's 5.0% but improves from January 2019's 6.4%, BLS says.

Industry added only 1,000 jobs for the month but workforce still is up by 2%, year over year.

Industry's unemployment rate increased to 4.0% from September's 3.2% and October 2018's 3.6%.