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 Daylight Time. 

Statement of 

Erica L. Groshen 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, October 7, 2016

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 156,000 in 

September, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 5.0 

percent. Job gains occurred in professional and business 

services and in health care. Thus far this year, nonfarm job 

growth has averaged 178,000 per month, compared with an average 

gain of 229,000 per month in 2015.

Incorporating revisions for July and August, which reduced 

nonfarm payroll employment by 7,000 on net, monthly job gains 

have averaged 192,000 over the past 3 months. 

Professional and business services employment rose by 

67,000 in September and by 582,000 over the year. Within the 

industry, employment in management and technical consulting 

services increased by 16,000 over the month, and employment 

continued to trend up in administrative and support services 

(+35,000). 
2 

Health care added 33,000 jobs in September, with gains in 

ambulatory health care services (+24,000) and hospitals 

(+7,000). Over the past 12 months, health care employment has 

grown by 445,000. 

Employment continued to trend up in food services and 

drinking places (+30,000) in September. Over the year, this 

industry has added 300,000 jobs. 

Employment also continued to trend up over the month in 

retail trade (+22,000) and was up by 317,000 over the year. 

Mining employment was flat in September; the rate of job 

loss in the industry had been moderating in recent months. 

Employment in other major industries, including 

construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and 

warehousing, information, financial activities, and government, 

changed little over the month. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls increased by 6 cents in September to $25.79. Over the 

past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.6 

percent. From August 2015 to August 2016, the Consumer Price 

Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.1 percent 

(on a seasonally adjusted basis). 

Turning to data from the survey of households, most major 

labor market measures continued to show little or no change in 

September. The unemployment rate, at 5.0 percent, and the number 
3 

of unemployed people, at 7.9 million, were essentially unchanged 

over the month and have shown little net movement since August 

2015. 

Among the unemployed in September, 2.0 million, or 24.9 

percent, had been searching for work for 27 weeks or more. 

The labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, and 

the employment-population ratio, at 59.8 percent, changed little 

over the month. Both measures have shown little movement in 

recent months, but were up by 0.5 percentage point over the 

year. 

Among the employed, 5.9 million worked part time for 

economic reasons in September, little different from August. 

(These involuntary part-time workers would prefer to work full 

time, but had their hours cut back or were unable to find fulltime jobs.) 

Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 

in September, 1.8 million were marginally attached to the labor 

force, about the same as a year earlier. Discouraged workers, a 

subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were 

available for them, numbered 553,000 in September, also about 

the same as a year earlier. (Marginally attached to the labor 

force refers to those who had not looked for work in the 4 weeks 

prior to the survey but wanted a job, were available for work, 

and had looked for a job within the last 12 months.) 
4 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 156,000 

in September, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 

5.0 percent.