Transmission of material in this release is embargoed USDL-09-1583
until 8:30 a.m. (EST) Friday, January 8, 2010
Technical information:
Household data: (202) 691-6378 * cpsinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/cps
Establishment data: (202) 691-6555 * cesinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/ces
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
NOTE: This version of the release was reissued to replace the
incorrect table A-13 which had May 2007 and May 2008 data instead
of December 2008 and December 2009 data. The PDF version of the
release was not affected. This correction did not affect any
analysis in the release.
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- DECEMBER 2009
Nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-85,000) in December, and the unem-
ployment rate was unchanged at 10.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis-
tics reported today. Employment fell in construction, manufacturing, and
wholesale trade, while temporary help services and health care added jobs.
Household Survey Data
In December, both the number of unemployed persons, at 15.3 million, and the
unemployment rate, at 10.0 percent, were unchanged. At the start of the re-
cession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons was 7.7 million,
and the unemployment rate was 5.0 percent. (See table A-1.)
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| |
| Revision of Seasonally Adjusted Household Survey Data |
| |
|Seasonally adjusted household survey data have been revised using up- |
|dated seasonal adjustment factors, a procedure done at the end of each|
|calendar year. Seasonally adjusted estimates back to January 2005 were|
|subject to revision. The unemployment rates for January 2009 through |
|November 2009 (as originally published and as revised) appear in |
|table B, along with additional information about the revisions. |
| |
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Unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (10.2 percent),
adult women (8.2 percent), teenagers (27.1 percent), whites (9.0 percent),
blacks (16.2 percent), and Hispanics (12.9 percent)--showed little change in
December. The unemployment rate for Asians was 8.4 percent, not seasonally
adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
Among the unemployed, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27
weeks and over) continued to trend up, reaching 6.1 million. In December, 4 in
10 unemployed workers were jobless for 27 weeks or longer. (See table A-9.)
The civilian labor force participation rate fell to 64.6 percent in December.
The employment-population ratio declined to 58.2 percent. (See table A-1.)
The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes re-
ferred to as involuntary part-time workers) was about unchanged at 9.2 million
in December and has been relatively flat since March. These individuals were
working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were
unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-5.)
About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in
December, an increase of 578,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not sea-
sonally 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. (See table A-13.)
Among the marginally attached, there were 929,000 discouraged workers in
December, up from 642,000 a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally ad-
justed.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work be-
cause they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.6 million
persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in
the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or
family responsibilities.
Establishment Survey Data
Total nonfarm payroll employment edged down in December (-85,000). Job losses
continued in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade, while temporary
help services and health care continued to add jobs. During 2009, monthly job
losses moderated substantially. Employment losses in the first quarter of 2009
averaged 691,000 per month, compared with an average loss of 69,000 per month
in the fourth quarter. (See table B-1.)
Construction employment declined by 53,000 in December, with job losses
throughout the industry. Employment in construction has fallen by 1.6 mil-
lion since the recession began.
In December, employment in manufacturing decreased by 27,000. The average
monthly decline for the last 6 months of 2009 (-41,000) was much lower than
the average monthly decline for the first half of the year (-171,000). Since
the recession began, manufacturing employment has fallen by 2.1 million; three-
fourths of this drop occurred in the durable goods component (-1.6 million).
Wholesale trade employment declined by 18,000 in December, with the majority of
the decline occurring among durable goods wholesalers. Employment in retail
trade was little changed over the month, although general merchandise stores
lost 15,000 jobs.
Temporary help services added 47,000 jobs in December. Since reaching a low
point in July, temporary help services employment has risen by 166,000.
Health care employment continued to increase in December (22,000), with notable
gains in offices of physicians (9,000) and home health care services (8,000).
The health care industry has added 631,000 jobs since the recession began.
In December, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on
private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 33.2 hours. The manufacturing work-
week, at 40.4 hours, and factory overtime, at 3.4 hours, were unchanged over
the month. Since May, the manufacturing workweek has increased by 1.0 hour.
(See table B-2.)
In December, average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers
on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $18.80. Over
the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.2 percent, while
average weekly earnings have risen by 1.9 percent. (See table B-3.)
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised from
-111,000 to -127,000, and the change for November was revised from -11,000 to
+4,000.
_____________
The Employment Situation for January is scheduled to be released on Friday,
February 5, 2010, at 8:30 a.m. (EST).
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| |
| Upcoming Changes to The Employment Situation News Release |
| |
|Effective with the release of January 2010 data on February 5, 2010, |
|the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will introduce several changes to |
|The Employment Situation news release text and tables. Two new sum- |
|mary tables--one for the household survey and one for the establish- |
|ment survey--will replace the current table A. In addition, three new |
|household data tables will provide information on the employment sta- |
|tus of veterans, persons with a disability, and the foreign born. Al- |
|so, the establishment data tables have been largely redesigned to in- |
|clude information on all employee hours and earnings, women employees,|
|and production and nonsupervisory employees. The ordering and format |
|of some tables also will change. Additional information is available |
|at www.bls.gov/bls/upcoming_empsit_changes.htm. |
| |
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| |
| Revisions in the Establishment Survey Data |
| |
|With the release of January 2010 data on February 5, 2010, the Current|
|Employment Statistics survey will introduce revisions to nonfarm pay- |
|roll employment, hours, and earnings data to reflect the annual bench-|
|mark adjustments for March 2009 and updated seasonal adjustment fac- |
|tors. Not seasonally adjusted data beginning with April 2008 and sea- |
|sonally adjusted data beginning with January 2005 are subject to revi-|
|sion. |
| |
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| |
| Revisions in the Household Survey Data |
| |
|Effective with the release of data for January 2010, revisions will |
|be introduced into the population controls for the household survey. |
|These changes reflect the routine annual updating of intercensal popu-|
|lation estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. |
| |
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Table A. Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
_______________________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Quarterly | |
| averages | Monthly data | Nov.-
Category |_________________|__________________________| Dec.
| | | | | | change
| III | IV | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. |
| 2009 | 2009 | 2009 | 2009 | 2009 |
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
HOUSEHOLD DATA | Labor force status
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Civilian labor force ....| 154,235| 153,544| 153,854| 153,720| 153,059| -661
Employment ............| 139,339| 138,138| 138,242| 138,381| 137,792| -589
Unemployment ..........| 14,895| 15,406| 15,612| 15,340| 15,267| -73
Not in labor force ......| 81,858| 83,195| 82,696| 83,022| 83,865| 843
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Unemployment rates
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
All workers .............| 9.7| 10.0| 10.1| 10.0| 10.0| 0.0
Adult men .............| 10.1| 10.4| 10.6| 10.4| 10.2| -.2
Adult women ...........| 7.7| 8.1| 8.1| 8.0| 8.2| .2
Teenagers .............| 25.4| 27.2| 27.6| 26.8| 27.1| .3
White .................| 8.9| 9.2| 9.4| 9.3| 9.0| -.3
Black or African | | | | | |
American ............| 15.1| 15.8| 15.7| 15.6| 16.2| .6
Hispanic or Latino | | | | | |
ethnicity ...........| 12.7| 12.9| 13.1| 12.7| 12.9| .2
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
ESTABLISHMENT DATA | Employment
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Nonfarm employment.......| 131,262|p130,965| 130,991|p130,995|p130,910| p-85
Goods-producing (1)....| 18,595| p18,313| 18,379| p18,321| p18,240| p-81
Construction ........| 6,100| p5,951| 5,987| p5,960| p5,907| p-53
Manufacturing .......| 11,786| p11,660| 11,692| p11,657| p11,630| p-27
Service-providing (1)..| 112,667|p112,652| 112,612|p112,674|p112,670| p-4
Retail trade (2)...| 14,720| p14,634| 14,647| p14,633| p14,623| p-10
Professional and | | | | | |
business services .| 16,628| p16,751| 16,675| p16,764| p16,814| p50
Education and health | | | | | |
services ..........| 19,307| p19,420| 19,384| p19,421| p19,456| p35
Leisure and | | | | | |
hospitality .......| 13,172| p13,117| 13,134| p13,121| p13,096| p-25
Government ..........| 22,470| p22,480| 22,484| p22,488| p22,467| p-21
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Hours of work (3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ...........| 33.1| p33.1| 33.0| p33.2| p33.2| p0.0
Manufacturing .........| 39.9| p40.3| 40.1| p40.4| p40.4| p.0
Overtime ............| 3.0| p3.3| 3.2| p3.4| p3.4| p.0
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Indexes of aggregate weekly hours (2002=100)(3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ...........| 99.0| p98.9| 98.5| p99.1| p99.1| p0.0
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Earnings (3)
|_____________________________________________________
Average hourly earnings, | | | | | |
total private .........| $18.64| p$18.77| $18.74| p$18.77| p$18.80| p$0.03
Average weekly earnings, | | | | | |
total private .........| 617.10| p621.91| 618.42| p623.16| p624.16| p1.00
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________
1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.
2 Quarterly averages and the over-the-month change are calculated using
unrounded data.
3 Data relate to private production and nonsupervisory workers.
p = preliminary.
NOTE: Seasonally adjusted household data have been revised. See note below.
Revision of Seasonally Adjusted Household Survey Data
At the end of each calendar year, BLS routinely updates the seasonal
adjustment factors for the labor force series derived from the Current
Population Survey (CPS), or household survey. As a result of this pro-
cess, seasonally adjusted data for January 2005 through November 2009
were subject to revision.
Table B shows the unemployment rates for January 2009 through November
2009, as first published and as revised. The rates were unchanged in 7
of the 11 months and changed by one-tenth of a percentage point in
the remaining 4 months. Revised seasonally adjusted data for other
major labor force series beginning in December 2008 appear in table C.
An article describing the seasonal adjustment methodology for the
household survey data and revised data for January 2009 through
November 2009 is available at www.bls.gov/cps/cpsrs2010.pdf.
Historical data for the household series contained in the A tables
of this release can be accessed at www.bls.gov/cps/cpsatabs.htm.
Revised historical seasonally adjusted monthly and quarterly data
for additional series are available on the Internet at
ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/.
Table B. Seasonally adjusted unemployment rates and changes due to
revision, January-November 2009
Year and month As first As Change
published revised
2009
January ............... 7.6 7.7 0.1
February .............. 8.1 8.2 .1
March ................. 8.5 8.6 .1
April ................. 8.9 8.9 .0
May ................... 9.4 9.4 .0
June .................. 9.5 9.5 .0
July .................. 9.4 9.4 .0
August ................ 9.7 9.7 .0
September ............. 9.8 9.8 .0
October ............... 10.2 10.1 -.1
November .............. 10.0 10.0 .0
Table C. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
2008 2009
Employment status, sex, and age
Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
TOTAL
Civilian noninstitutional population (1) 235,035 234,739 234,913 235,086 235,271 235,452 235,655 235,870 236,087 236,322 236,550 236,743 236,924
Civilian labor force.................. 154,587 154,140 154,401 154,164 154,718 154,956 154,759 154,351 154,426 153,927 153,854 153,720 153,059
Participation rate.............. 65.8 65.7 65.7 65.6 65.8 65.8 65.7 65.4 65.4 65.1 65.0 64.9 64.6
Employed............................ 143,188 142,221 141,687 140,854 140,902 140,438 140,038 139,817 139,433 138,768 138,242 138,381 137,792
Employment-population ratio..... 60.9 60.6 60.3 59.9 59.9 59.6 59.4 59.3 59.1 58.7 58.4 58.5 58.2
Unemployed.......................... 11,400 11,919 12,714 13,310 13,816 14,518 14,721 14,534 14,993 15,159 15,612 15,340 15,267
Unemployment rate............... 7.4 7.7 8.2 8.6 8.9 9.4 9.5 9.4 9.7 9.8 10.1 10.0 10.0
Men, 20 years and over
Civilian noninstitutional population (1) 105,083 104,902 104,999 105,095 105,196 105,299 105,412 105,530 105,651 105,780 105,906 106,018 106,125
Civilian labor force.................. 79,108 78,769 78,859 78,680 79,106 79,339 79,246 78,984 79,196 78,977 79,024 78,901 78,402
Participation rate.............. 75.3 75.1 75.1 74.9 75.2 75.3 75.2 74.8 75.0 74.7 74.6 74.4 73.9
Employed............................ 73,237 72,625 72,266 71,667 71,665 71,552 71,354 71,255 71,142 70,861 70,662 70,662 70,391
Employment-population ratio..... 69.7 69.2 68.8 68.2 68.1 68.0 67.7 67.5 67.3 67.0 66.7 66.7 66.3
Unemployed.......................... 5,871 6,144 6,593 7,013 7,441 7,787 7,892 7,728 8,055 8,116 8,362 8,239 8,011
Unemployment rate............... 7.4 7.8 8.4 8.9 9.4 9.8 10.0 9.8 10.2 10.3 10.6 10.4 10.2
Women, 20 years and over
Civilian noninstitutional population (1) 112,825 112,738 112,824 112,908 112,999 113,089 113,189 113,296 113,405 113,522 113,636 113,737 113,832
Civilian labor force.................. 68,904 68,793 68,914 68,972 69,105 69,060 68,984 68,910 68,847 68,686 68,687 68,742 68,620
Participation rate.............. 61.1 61.0 61.1 61.1 61.2 61.1 60.9 60.8 60.7 60.5 60.4 60.4 60.3
Employed............................ 64,744 64,391 64,238 64,110 64,147 63,847 63,741 63,685 63,552 63,280 63,133 63,269 62,998
Employment-population ratio..... 57.4 57.1 56.9 56.8 56.8 56.5 56.3 56.2 56.0 55.7 55.6 55.6 55.3
Unemployed.......................... 4,160 4,402 4,676 4,863 4,957 5,213 5,243 5,225 5,295 5,406 5,554 5,473 5,622
Unemployment rate............... 6.0 6.4 6.8 7.1 7.2 7.5 7.6 7.6 7.7 7.9 8.1 8.0 8.2
Both sexes, 16 to 19 years
Civilian noninstitutional population (1) 17,126 17,098 17,090 17,083 17,076 17,064 17,053 17,044 17,031 17,020 17,008 16,988 16,967
Civilian labor force.................. 6,575 6,578 6,628 6,512 6,507 6,557 6,529 6,457 6,383 6,264 6,143 6,077 6,037
Participation rate.............. 38.4 38.5 38.8 38.1 38.1 38.4 38.3 37.9 37.5 36.8 36.1 35.8 35.6
Employed............................ 5,207 5,205 5,183 5,077 5,089 5,039 4,943 4,877 4,740 4,627 4,448 4,450 4,403
Employment-population ratio..... 30.4 30.4 30.3 29.7 29.8 29.5 29.0 28.6 27.8 27.2 26.1 26.2 25.9
Unemployed.......................... 1,368 1,373 1,445 1,435 1,418 1,518 1,586 1,581 1,643 1,637 1,696 1,627 1,634
Unemployment rate............... 20.8 20.9 21.8 22.0 21.8 23.2 24.3 24.5 25.7 26.1 27.6 26.8 27.1
1 The population figures are not adjusted for seasonal variation.
NOTE: Seasonally adjusted data have been revised to reflect updated seasonal adjustment factors.
