Employment Blog October 2015

By Stephen Singer, October 12, 2015

This report is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U S Department of Labor. Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in September, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.1 percent. Employment rose in health care and information, while mining lost jobs. Thus far in 2015, nonfarm job growth has averaged 198,000 per month, compared with an average monthly gain of 260,000 in 2014. Incorporating revisions for July and August, which decreased nonfarm payroll employment by 59,000, monthly job gains have averaged 167,000 over the past 3 months. This information is summarized in Charts 1 and 2 below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health care employment rose by 34,000 in September, in line with its average monthly gain of 38,000 over the prior 12 months. Hospitals added 16,000 jobs over the month, and employment in ambulatory health care continued to trend up (+13,000).

Employment in information grew by 12,000 in September. Over the year, the industry has added 44,000 jobs.

Employment in professional and business services continued to trend up over the month (+31,000). Job growth has averaged 45,000 per month thus far in 2015, compared with an average monthly gain of 59,000 in 2014. In September, employment rose in computer systems design (+7,000) and legal services (+5,000).

Retail trade employment trended up in September (+24,000), in line with the average gain of 27,000 per month over the prior 12 months. In September, job gains occurred in general merchandise stores (+10,000) and auto dealers (+5,000). Employment in food services and drinking places also continued to trend up in September (+21,000). Over the year, employment in this industry has expanded by 349,000.

Mining employment fell by 10,000 in September, and has declined by 102,000 since reaching a peak in December 2014. In September, support activities for mining lost 7,000 jobs.

Construction employment was little changed in September and has shown little movement over the past several months.

Manufacturing employment also changed little in September and has shown little net change thus far this year.

In September, average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls, at $25.09, were little changed (-1 cent), following a rise of 9 cents in August. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.2 percent. From August 2014 to August 2015, the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 0.2 percentage point (on a seasonally adjusted basis).

Turning to measures from the household survey, the unemployment rate held at 5.1 percent in September, and the number of unemployed was little changed at 7.9 million. Among the unemployed, 2.1 million, or 26.6 percent, had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, little changed from the prior month. The labor force participation rate decreased to 62.4 percent in September; it had been 62.6 percent for the prior 3 months. The employment-population ratio edged down to 59.2 percent over the month after showing little change for the first 8 months of the year.