Unchanged Employment Situation in August

 

Chart 1. Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, August 2008 ?EUR??,,????'?????< Courtesy of Bureau of Labor Statistics

Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-54,000) in August and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 9.6 percent. Government employment fell, as 114,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private-sector payroll employment continued to trend up modestly (+67,000).

The number of unemployed persons (14.9 million) and the unemployment rate (9.6 percent) were little changed in August. From May through August, the jobless rate remained in the range of 9.5 to 9.7 percent.

In August, the civilian labor force participation rate (64.7 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were essentially unchanged. The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased by 331,000 over the month to 8.9 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.

About 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in August, little changed from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months.

They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Unemployment has continued to be a huge issue for the last few years. Until this problem gets solved, it could take a while for the economy to recover.

- Bureau of Labor Statistics