Technical information:
Household data: (202) 691-6378 USDL 08-1617
http://www.bls.gov/cps/
Establishment data: (202) 691-6555 Transmission of material in this release
http://www.bls.gov/ces/ is embargoed until 8:30 A.M. (EST),
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Friday, November 7, 2008.
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: OCTOBER 2008
Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, and the unemployment rate
rose from 6.1 to 6.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department
of Labor reported today. October's drop in payroll employment followed declines of
127,000 in August and 284,000 in September, as revised. Employment has fallen by
1.2 million in the first 10 months of 2008; over half of the decrease has occurred
in the past 3 months. In October, job losses continued in manufacturing, construc-
tion, and several service-providing industries. Health care and mining continued
to add jobs.
Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 6.5 percent in October,
and the number of unemployed persons increased by 603,000 to 10.1 million. Over
the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 2.8 mil-
lion, and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.7 percentage points. (See
table A-1.)
The unemployment rates for adult men (6.3 percent), adult women (5.3 percent),
whites (5.9 percent), and Hispanics (8.8 percent) rose in October. The jobless
rates for teenagers (20.6 percent) and blacks (11.1 percent) were little changed.
The unemployment rate for Asians in October was 3.8 percent, not seasonally ad-
justed. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
Among the unemployed, the number of persons who lost their job and did not ex-
pect to be recalled to work rose by 615,000 to 4.4 million in October. Over the
past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 1.7 million. (See
table A-8.)
In October, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or
more) rose by 249,000 to 2.3 million. The long-term unemployed accounted for
22.3 percent of total unemployment. The newly unemployed--those who were jobless
fewer than 5 weeks--increased by 212,000 to 3.1 million in October. (See
table A-9.)
Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
The civilian labor force participation rate (66.1 percent) and the employment-
population ratio (61.8 percent) were little changed in October. Since a recent
high in December 2006, the employment-population ratio has declined by 1.6 per-
centage points. (See table A-1.)
- 2 -
Table A. Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
_______________________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Quarterly | |
| averages | Monthly data | Sept.-
Category |_________________|__________________________| Oct.
| | | | | | change
| II | III | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. |
| 2008 | 2008 | 2008 | 2008 | 2008 |
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
HOUSEHOLD DATA | Labor force status
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Civilian labor force ....| 154,294| 154,730| 154,853| 154,732| 155,038| 306
Employment ............| 146,089| 145,517| 145,477| 145,255| 144,958| -297
Unemployment ..........| 8,204| 9,213| 9,376| 9,477| 10,080| 603
Not in labor force ......| 79,117| 79,381| 79,253| 79,628| 79,575| -53
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Unemployment rates
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
All workers .............| 5.3| 6.0| 6.1| 6.1| 6.5| 0.4
Adult men .............| 4.9| 5.7| 5.6| 6.1| 6.3| .2
Adult women ...........| 4.6| 4.9| 5.3| 4.9| 5.3| .4
Teenagers .............| 17.4| 19.5| 18.9| 19.1| 20.6| 1.5
White .................| 4.7| 5.3| 5.4| 5.4| 5.9| .5
Black or African | | | | | |
American ............| 9.1| 10.6| 10.6| 11.4| 11.1| -.3
Hispanic or Latino | | | | | |
ethnicity ...........| 7.2| 7.7| 8.0| 7.8| 8.8| 1.0
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
ESTABLISHMENT DATA | Employment
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Nonfarm employment.......| 137,699|p137,371| 137,423|p137,139|p136,899| p-240
Goods-producing (1)....| 21,565| p21,363| 21,367| p21,284| p21,152| p-132
Construction ........| 7,242| p7,148| 7,153| p7,118| p7,069| p-49
Manufacturing .......| 13,563| p13,428| 13,426| p13,370| p13,280| p-90
Service-providing (1)..| 116,134|p116,008| 116,056|p115,855|p115,747| p-108
Retail trade (2)...| 15,337| p15,269| 15,275| p15,230| p15,192| p-38
Professional and | | | | | |
business services .| 17,980| p17,858| 17,854| p17,815| p17,770| p-45
Education and health | | | | | |
services ..........| 18,823| p18,971| 18,997| p18,981| p19,002| p21
Leisure and | | | | | |
hospitality .......| 13,683| p13,637| 13,639| p13,618| p13,602| p-16
Government ..........| 22,439| p22,496| 22,514| p22,473| p22,496| p23
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Hours of work (3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ...........| 33.7| p33.7| 33.7| p33.6| p33.6| p0.0
Manufacturing .........| 41.0| p40.8| 40.9| p40.6| p40.6| p.0
Overtime ............| 3.9| p3.7| 3.7| p3.6| p3.6| p.0
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Indexes of aggregate weekly hours (2002=100)(3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ...........| 107.2| p106.6| 106.8| p106.2| p105.9| p-0.3
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Earnings (3)
|_____________________________________________________
Average hourly earnings, | | | | | |
total private .........| $17.95| p$18.12| $18.14| p$18.17| p$18.21| p$0.04
Average weekly earnings, | | | | | |
total private .........| 605.40| p610.15| 611.32| p610.51| p611.86| p1.35
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________
1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.
2 Quarterly averages and the over-the-month change are calculated using
unrounded data.
3 Data relate to private production and nonsupervisory workers.
p = preliminary.
- 3 -
In October, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons
(sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose by 645,000 to 6.7
million. The number of such workers increased by 2.3 million over the past 12
months. This category includes persons who would like to work full time but were
working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were un-
able to find full-time jobs. (See table A-5.)
Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
About 1.6 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached
to the labor force in October, 273,000 more than 12 months earlier. These indi-
viduals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in
the prior 12 months. They are not counted as unemployed because they had not
searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Among the marginally at-
tached, there were 484,000 discouraged workers in October; the number of dis-
couraged workers was 164,000 higher than a year earlier. Discouraged workers are
persons not currently looking for work specifically because they believe no jobs
are available for them. The other 1.2 million persons marginally attached to the
labor force in October had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the sur-
vey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See
table A-13.)
Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)
Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, bringing job losses
thus far in 2008 to 1.2 million. Over the month, employment declines continued in
manufacturing, construction, and several service-providing industries, while health
care and mining again added jobs. (See table B-1.)
Manufacturing employment declined by 90,000 over the month. Some 27,000 aero-
space workers in the transportation equipment industry were off payrolls in October
due to a strike; taking the strike into account, factory job losses in October were
about in line with the prior 2 months. Within durable goods manufacturing, employ-
ment declined in fabricated metal products (-11,000), furniture and related products
(-10,000), motor vehicles and parts (-9,000), wood products (-7,000), and computer
and electronic products (-4,000). In the nondurable goods component, job losses
occurred in plastics and rubber products (-6,000), apparel (-4,000), and printing
and related support activities (-4,000).
Construction employment fell by 49,000 in October, with declines throughout the
industry. Since peaking in September 2006, construction employment has fallen by
663,000, largely in the residential components.
Within professional and business services, the employment services industry shed
51,000 jobs in October. The pace of job loss in this industry has picked up in 2008,
averaging 37,000 per month through October; in 2007, monthly job losses averaged
11,000 in employment services.
Retail trade employment fell by 38,000 in October, with the largest losses occur-
ring among automobile dealers (-20,000) and department stores (-18,000). Wholesale
trade employment was down by 22,000 over the month, with most of the decrease among
durable goods wholesalers.
Employment in financial activities declined by 24,000 in October and is down
by 200,000 since its peak in December 2006. Over the month, employment contracted
in both credit intermediation and related activities (-12,000) and in securities
and investment firms (-6,000).
Health care employment continued to expand in October, with an increase of
26,000. Over the past 12 months, health care employment has grown by 348,000.
The mining industry added 7,000 jobs in October. Since a low in April 2003, min-
ing employment has grown by 246,000.
- 4 -
Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)
In October, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on
private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 33.6 hours. The manufacturing workweek
and factory overtime also were unchanged over the month at 40.6 and 3.6 hours,
respectively. (See table B-2.)
The index of aggregate weekly hours of production and nonsupervisory workers on
private nonfarm payrolls declined by 0.3 percent in October. The manufacturing in-
dex fell by 1.0 percent. (See table B-5.)
Hourly and Weekly Earnings (Establishment Survey Data)
In October, average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers on
private nonfarm payrolls increased by 4 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $18.21, seasonally
adjusted. Average weekly earnings were $611.86. Over the past 12 months, average
hourly earnings increased by 3.5 percent and average weekly earnings rose by 2.9
percent. (See tables B-3 and B-4.)
______________________________
The Employment Situation for November 2008 is scheduled to be released on
Friday, December 5, at 8:30 A.M. (EST).
Bureau of Labor Statistics
