August BLS Employment Situation Report
Friday September 7, 2012: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 96,000 in August, and the unemployment rate edged down to 8.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in food services and drinking places, in professional and technical services, and in health care.
Household Survey Data
The unemployment rate edged down in August to 8.1 percent. Since the beginning of this year, the rate has held in a narrow range of 8.1 to 8.3 percent. The number of unemployed persons, at 12.5 million, was little changed in August. (See table A-1.)
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.6 percent), adult women (7.3 percent), teenagers (24.6 percent), whites (7.2 percent), blacks (14.1 percent), and Hispanics (10.2 percent) showed little or no change in August. The jobless rate for Asians was 5.9 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
In August, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 5.0 million. These individuals accounted for 40.0 percent of the unemployed. (See table A-12.)
Both the civilian labor force (154.6 million) and the labor force participation rate (63.5 percent) declined in August. The employment-population ratio, at 58.3 percent, was little changed. (See table A-1.)
In August, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (These 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. (See table A-16.)
Among the marginally attached, there were 844,000 discouraged workers in August, a decline of 133,000 from a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.7 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in August had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See
table A-16.)
Thursday ADP Report (pdf)
September 6, 2012 – Private-sector employment increased by 201,000 from July to August on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report® released today. The ADP National Employment Report, created by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP®), in partnership with Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, is derived from actual payroll data and measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month. The estimated gain from June to July was revised up from the initial estimate of 163,000 to 173,000.
U.S. Nonfarm Private Employment Highlights – August 2012 Report:
- Total employment: +201,000
- Small businesses:* +99,000
- Medium businesses:** +86,000
- Large businesses:*** +16,000
- Goods-producing sector: +16,000
- Service-providing sector: +185,000
- Manufacturing industry: + 3,000
** Medium businesses represent payrolls with 50-499 employees
*** Large businesses represent payrolls with more than 499 employees
Note: All data included in the ADP National Employment Report is based on size
According to today’s ADP National Employment Report, employment in the nonfarm private business sector rose 201,000 from July to August on a seasonally adjusted basis. Employment in the private, service-providing sector expanded 185,000 in August, up from 156,000 in July. Employment in the private, goods-producing sector added 16,000 jobs in August, while manufacturing employment rose 3,000, following an increase of 6,000 in July. Construction employment rose for the third consecutive month, adding 10,000 jobs, marking the best reading since March. The financial services sector added 8,000 jobs from July to August, marking the thirteenth consecutive monthly gain.
Carlos A. Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP, said: “According to this month’s ADP National Employment Report, the U.S. economy added 201,000 jobs in August, the largest increase in five months. The improvement in job creation this month is encouraging and we hope it continues across all sectors of the U.S. economy.”
