September 2014 Employment Blog

By Stephen Singer, September 24, 2014

This information is provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U S Department of Labor. Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 6.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services and in health care. In August, both the unemployment rate (6.1 percent) and the number of unemployed persons (9.6 million) changed little. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.1 percentage points and 1.7 million, respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates in August showed little or no change for adult men (5.7 percent), adult women (5.7 percent), teenagers (19.6 percent), whites (5.3 percent), blacks (11.4 percent), and Hispanic s (7.5 percent). The jobless rate for Asians was 4.5 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 192,000 to 3.0 million in August. These individuals accounted for 31.2 percent of the unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 1.3 million.

The civilian labor force participation rate, at 62.8 percent, changed little in August and has been essentially unchanged since April. In August, the employment-population ratio was 59.0 percent for the third consecutive month but is up by 0.4 percentage point from a year earlier.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in August at 7.3 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

In January 2014, median employee tenure (the point at which half of all workers had more tenure and half had less tenure) for men was 4.7 years, unchanged from January 2012. For women, median tenure in January 2014 was 4.5 years, about unchanged from January 2012. Among men, 30 percent of wage and salary workers had 10 years or more of tenure with their current employer, compared with 28 percent for women.

Median employee tenure was generally higher among older workers than younger ones. For example, the median tenure of workers ages 55 to 64 (10.4 years) was more than three times that of workers ages 25 to 34 years (3.0 years). A larger proportion of older workers than younger workers had 10 years or more of tenure. Among workers ages 60 to 64, 58 percent were employed for at least 10 years with their current employer in January 2014, compared with only 12 percent of those ages 30 to 34.

Among the major race and ethnicity groups, 21 percent of Hispanics had been with their current employer for 10 years or more in January 2014, compared with 30 percent of whites and 25 percent of both blacks and Asians. The shorter tenure among Hispanic workers can be explained, in part, by their relative youth. Forty-four percent of Hispanic workers were between the ages of 16 and 34; by comparison, the proportions for whites (35 percent), blacks (38 percent), and Asians (34 percent) were smaller.

In January 2014, wage and salary workers in the public sector had nearly double the median tenure of private sector employees, 7.8 years versus 4.1 years. One factor behind this difference is age. About three in four government workers were age 35 and over, compared with about three in five private wage and salary workers. Federal employees had a higher median tenure (8.5 years) than state (7.4 years) or local government (7.9 years) employees.

Within the private sector, workers in manufacturing had the highest tenure among major industries, at 5.9 years in January 2014. In contrast, workers in leisure and hospitality had the lowest median tenure (2.3 years). These differences in tenure reflect many factors, one of which is varying age distributions across industries; on average, workers in manufacturing tend to be older than those in leisure and hospitality.

Among the major occupations, workers in management, professional, and related occupations had the highest median tenure (5.7 years) in January 2014. Within this group, employees had the longest tenure in the following occupations: management (6.9 years), architecture and engineering (6.4 years), and education, training, and library (6.2 years). Workers in service occupations, who are generally younger than persons employed in management, professional, and related occupations, had the lowest median tenure (3.3 years). Among employees working in service occupations, food preparation workers had the lowest median tenure, at 2.2 years.