Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 

under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 

the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. 

Statement of 

Keith Hall 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

before the 

Joint Economic Committee 

UNITED STATES CONGRESS 

Friday, December 3, 2010

Madam Chair and Members of the Committee: 

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and 

unemployment data we released this morning. 

Nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in 

November (+39,000), and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 

percent. The jobless rate had been 9.6 percent in each of the 

prior 3 months. Payroll employment has increased by an average 

of 86,000 per month since its recent low point in December 2009. 

In November, temporary help services and health care added jobs, 

while employment fell in retail trade. 
2 

Temporary help services employment increased by 40,000 over 

the month. Since the industry's most recent low in September 

2009, employment has grown by 494,000. 

In November, health care employment rose by 19,000, 

including a gain of 8,000 in hospitals. Thus far in 2010, the 

health care industry has added an average of 21,000 jobs per 

month, about in line with average monthly job growth in 2009. 

Retail trade employment decreased by 28,000 in November, 

including declines in department stores (-9,000) and in 

furniture and home furnishings stores (-5,000). Other major 

service-providing industries showed little employment change in 

November. 

Manufacturing employment changed little over the month. 

Following job growth earlier in 2010, factory employment has 

been relatively flat, on net, since May. Elsewhere in the 

goods-producing sector, construction employment also changed 

little in November, while mining employment continued to trend 

up. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls were up by 1 cent in November to $22.75. Over the past 

12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.6 percent. 

From October 2009 to October 2010, the Consumer Price Index for 

All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.2 percent. 
3 

Turning now to measures from the survey of households, the 

unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent in November. Of the 

15.1 million persons unemployed in November, 41.9 percent had 

been jobless for 27 weeks or more. That proportion has been 

essentially unchanged since August. Among the employed, there 

were 9.0 million individuals working part time in November who 

preferred full-time work, about the same as in October. 

The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 64.5 

percent in November. Among those outside the labor force--that 

is, persons neither working nor looking for work--the number of 

discouraged workers in November was 1.3 million, up from 861,000 

a year earlier. These individuals were not looking for work 

because they believe no jobs are available for them. 

In summary, the unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent 

in November, and payroll employment was essentially unchanged. 

My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your 

questions.