Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend upward in September, increasing by 96,000, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.4 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Over the prior 3 months, payroll employment rose by 103,000 on average. In September, modest job gains occurred in a few service-providing industries.
Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
The number of unemployed persons was unchanged at 8.0 million in September, and the unemployment rate held at 5.4 percent, seasonally adjusted. The jobless rate is down from its most recent high of 6.3 percent in June 2003; most of this decline occurred in the second half of last year.The jobless rates for the major worker groups--adult men (5.0 percent), adult women (4.7 percent), teenagers (16.6 percent), whites (4.7 percent), blacks (10.3 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (7.1 percent)--showed little or no change in September. The unemployment rate for Asians was 4.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted.
Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
Total employment was about unchanged in September at 139.5 million, and the employment-population ratio--the proportion of the population age 16 and over with jobs--was little changed at 62.3 percent. Over the month, the civilian labor force was essentially unchanged at 147.5 million. The labor force participation rate was 65.9 percent in September and has been at or near that level since late last year.About 7.7 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) held more than one job in September. These multiple jobholders represented 5.5 percent of total employment, compared with 5.2 percent a year earlier.
Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
The number of persons who were marginally attached to the labor force was 1.6 million in September, about the same as a year earlier. (Data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals wanted and were available to work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed, however, because they did not actively search for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. There were 412,000 discouraged workers in September, little changed from a year earlier. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, were not currently looking for work specifically because they believed no jobs were available for them. The other 1.1 million marginally attached had not searched for work for reasons such as school or family responsibilities.
