December Employment Blog
This is a summary of employment trends based on the monthly report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Employment report released in December on November 2013 results.
The unemployment rate for the United States declined from 7.3 percent to 7.0 percent in November, and nonfarm payroll employment rose by 203,000. Employment rose in transportation and warehousing,health care, and manufacturing.
Incorporating the revisions for September and October, monthly job gains have averaged 193,000 over the past 3 months.
Transportation and warehousing employment increased by 31,000 over the month, with gains in couriers and messengers (+9,000), truck transportation (+8,000), warehousing and storage (+5,000), and air transportation (+3,000).
Health care added 28,000 jobs in November and has added an average of 19,000 jobs per month thus far this year.
Manufacturing added 27,000 jobs in November. Within the industry, food manufacturing (+8,000) and motor vehicles and parts (+7,000) added jobs over the month.
Employment in retail trade continued to trend up (+22,000). Over the prior 12 months, retail employment rose by an average of 31,000 per month.
Employment also continued to trend up over the month in professional and business services (+35,000), construction (+17,000), and leisure and hospitality (+17,000). Employment in other major industries showed little change.
The unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percentage point in November to 7.0 percent. Among the employed, the number of persons working part time for economic reasons fell by 331,000 to 7.7 million in November. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment, but had their hours cut or were unable to find full-time work.
Regional variation in employment continues to be significant. Table A compares the States with unemployment rates significantly better and worse than the national average. Table B provides States with significant changes in the statewide unemployment rate from September 2013 to October 2013.
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