Transmission of material in this release is embargoed until USDL-12-0012 

8:30 a.m. (EST) Friday, January 6, 2012 

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 release was reissued January 9, 2012 to correct data shown in chart 1. 

No other data in this release were corrected.) 

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION – DECEMBER 2011 

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 200,000 in December, and the unemployment rate, at 8.5 

percent, continued to trend down, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred 

in transportation and warehousing, retail trade, manufacturing, health care, and mining. 

-600

-400

-200

0

200

400

600

Dec-09 M ar-10 Jun-10 Sep-10 Dec-10 M ar-11 Jun-11 Sep-11 Dec-11

Thousands

Chart 2. Nonfarm payroll employment over-the-month 

change, seasonally adjusted, December 2009 –

December 2011

Percent

7.0

8.0

9.0

10.0

11.0

Dec-09 M ar-10 Jun-10 Sep-10 Dec-10 M ar-11 Jun-11 Sep-11 Dec-11

Chart 1. Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, 

December 2009 – December 2011

Revision of Seasonally Adjusted Household Survey Data 

Seasonally adjusted household survey data have been revised using updated seasonal 

adjustment factors, a procedure done at the end of each calendar year. Seasonally adjusted 

estimates back to January 2007 were subject to revision. The unemployment rates for January 

2011 through November 2011 (as originally published and as revised) appear in table A on 

page 5, along with additional information about the revisions. 
- 2 - 

Household Survey Data 

Both the number of unemployed persons (13.1 million) and the unemployment rate (8.5 percent) 

continued to trend down in December. The unemployment rate has declined by 0.6 percentage point 

since August. (See table A-1.) 

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men decreased to 8.0 percent in 

December. The jobless rates for adult women (7.9 percent), teenagers (23.1 percent), whites (7.5 

percent), blacks (15.8 percent), and Hispanics (11.0 percent) showed little change. The jobless rate for 

Asians was 6.8 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) 

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 5.6 

million and accounted for 42.5 percent of the unemployed. (See table A-12.) 

The civilian labor force participation rate (64.0 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 

percent) were both unchanged over the month. (See table A-1.) 

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as 

involuntary part-time workers) declined by 371,000 to 8.1 million in December. 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-8.) 

About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in December, little different 

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. (See table A-16.) 

Among the marginally attached, there were 945,000 discouraged workers in December, a decrease of 

373,000 from a year earlier. (The 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 1.6 

million persons marginally attached to the labor force in December 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.) 

Establishment Survey Data 

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 200,000 in December. Over the past 12 months, 

nonfarm payroll employment has risen by 1.6 million. Employment in the private sector rose by 212,000 

in December and by 1.9 million over the year. Government employment changed little over the month 

but fell by 280,000 over the year. (See table B-1.) 

Employment in transportation and warehousing rose sharply in December (+50,000). Almost all of 

the gain occurred in the couriers and messengers industry (+42,000); seasonal hiring was particularly 

strong in December. 

Retail trade continued to add jobs in December, with a gain of 28,000. Employment in the industry has 

increased by 240,000 over the past 12 months. Over the month, job gains continued in general 
- 3 - 

merchandise stores (+13,000) and in clothing and clothing accessories stores (+11,000). Employment in 

sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores fell by 10,000. 

In December, manufacturing employment expanded by 23,000, following 4 months of little change. 

Employment increased in December in transportation equipment (+9,000), fabricated metals (+6,000), 

and machinery (+5,000). 

Mining employment rose by 7,000 over the month. Over the year, mining added 89,000 jobs. 

Health care continued to add jobs in December (+23,000); employment in hospitals increased by 

10,000. Over the year, health care employment has risen by 315,000. 

Within leisure and hospitality, employment in food services and drinking places continued to trend up 

in December (+24,000). Over the year, food services and drinking places has added 230,000 jobs. 

Construction employment changed little in December. Within the industry, nonresidential specialty 

trade contractors added 20,000 jobs over the month, mostly offsetting losses over the prior 2 months. 

Employment in professional and business services changed little in December for the second month in 

a row. The industry added 42,000 jobs per month, on average, during the first 10 months of 2011. 

Government employment changed little in December but was down by 280,000 over the year. Job 

losses in 2011 occurred in local government; state government, excluding education; and the U.S. Postal 

Service. 

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1 hour to 34.4 

hours in December. The manufacturing workweek increased by 0.1 hour to 40.5 hours. Factory overtime 

decreased by 0.1 hour to 3.2 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory 

employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged up by 0.1 hour to 33.7 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.) 

In December, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents, 

or 0.2 percent, to $23.24. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.1 

percent. In December, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory 

employees were unchanged at $19.54. (See tables B-3 and B-8.) 

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised from +100,000 to +112,000, 

and the change for November was revised from +120,000 to +100,000. 

The Employment Situation for January is scheduled to be released on Friday, February 3, 2012, at 

8:30 a.m. (EST). 
- 4 - 

Upcoming Changes to Establishment Survey Data 

With the release of January 2012 data on February 3, 2012, the Current Employment Statistics 

(CES) survey will introduce revisions to nonfarm payroll employment, hours, and earnings data 

to reflect the annual benchmark adjustment for March 2011 and updated seasonal adjustment 

factors. Not seasonally adjusted data beginning with April 2010 and seasonally adjusted data 

beginning with January 2007 are subject to revision. 

The CES survey also will revise the basis for industry classification from the 2007 North 

American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to the 2012 NAICS. The 2012 NAICS 

includes minor changes within the Construction, Manufacturing, Retail trade, Utilities, and 

Leisure and hospitality sectors. Several industry titles and descriptions also changed. 

Approximately one percent of employment will be reclassified into different industries as a 

result of the NAICS revision. For more information on the 2012 NAICS, visit 

www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html. 

In addition to changes resulting from the conversion to the 2012 NAICS update, there will be 

some changes to the list of CES series published as a result of the annual benchmarking 

process. For more information on the industry changes effective with the release of the January 

2012 data, visit www.bls.gov/ces/cesnaics12.htm. 

Finally, some historical data prior to April 2010 are subject to minor revisions due to the 

application of a consistent rounding method over the entire time series. For additional details 

see www.bls.gov/ces/ceshistchanges.htm. 

Upcoming Changes to the Household Survey 

Effective with the release of The Employment Situation for January 2012 scheduled for 

February 3, 2012, population controls that reflect the results of Census 2010 will be used in the 

monthly household survey estimation process. Historical data will not be revised to incorporate 

the new controls; consequently, household survey data for January 2012 will not be directly 

comparable with that for December 2011 or earlier periods. A table showing the effects of the 

new controls on the major labor force series will be included in the January 2012 release. 

Also effective with the release of The Employment Situation for January 2012, the questions on 

race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity in the household survey will be modified. The minor 

wording changes in the questions are not expected to affect the estimates. 

In January 2012, the Census Bureau, which conducts the household survey, began a year-long 

process of reorganizing its regional office structure. For more information on these Census 

Bureau changes, see www.census.gov/newsroom/pdf/General_QAs_FINAL2.pdf. Both the 

Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will monitor survey operations during 

the transition period. No impact on the employment and unemployment estimates from the 

survey is anticipated from this organizational change. 
- 5 - 

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 

process, seasonally adjusted data for January 2007 through November 2011 were subject to revision. 

Table A shows the unemployment rates for January 2011 through November 2011, as first published and 

as revised. The rates changed by one-tenth of a percentage point in 8 of the 11 months and were 

unchanged in the remaining 3 months. Revised seasonally adjusted data for other major labor force 

series beginning in December 2010 appear in table B. 

An article describing the seasonal adjustment methodology for the household survey data and revised 

data for January 2011 through November 2011 is available at www.bls.gov/cps/cpsrs2012.pdf. 

Historical data for the household series contained in the A-tables (A-1 — A-16) 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 A. Seasonally adjusted unemployment rates in 2011 and changes due to revision

January - November 2011

January ......................................... 9.0 9.1 0.1

February ......................................... 8.9 9.0 .1

March ............................................. 8.8 8.9 .1

April ............................................. 9.0 9.0 .0

May ................................................ 9.1 9.0 -.1

June ................................................ 9.2 9.1 -.1

July .............................................. 9.1 9.1 .0

August .......................................... 9.1 9.1 .0

September ...................................... 9.1 9.0 -.1

October ........................................ 9.0 8.9 -.1

November ...................................... 8.6 8.7 .1

Month As first

computed As revised Change
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table B. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age, seasonally adjusted

[Numbers in thousands]

Employment status, sex, and age

2010 2011

Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.

TOTAL

Civilian noninstitutional population1

. . . . . . . 238,889 238,704 238,851 239,000 239,146 239,313 239,489 239,671 239,871 240,071 240,269 240,441 240,584

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153,613 153,250 153,302 153,392 153,420 153,700 153,409 153,358 153,674 154,004 154,057 153,937 153,887

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.3 64.2 64.2 64.2 64.2 64.2 64.1 64.0 64.1 64.1 64.1 64.0 64.0

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139,220 139,330 139,551 139,764 139,628 139,808 139,385 139,450 139,754 140,107 140,297 140,614 140,790

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . 58.3 58.4 58.4 58.5 58.4 58.4 58.2 58.2 58.3 58.4 58.4 58.5 58.5

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,393 13,919 13,751 13,628 13,792 13,892 14,024 13,908 13,920 13,897 13,759 13,323 13,097

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4 9.1 9.0 8.9 9.0 9.0 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.0 8.9 8.7 8.5

Men, 20 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population1

. . . . . . . 107,216 107,203 107,292 107,381 107,469 107,566 107,668 107,773 107,884 107,994 108,104 108,203 108,290

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78,884 78,594 78,832 78,805 78,895 79,204 79,116 78,977 79,089 79,241 79,291 79,440 79,436

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.6 73.3 73.5 73.4 73.4 73.6 73.5 73.3 73.3 73.4 73.3 73.4 73.4

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71,494 71,593 71,901 71,918 71,942 72,161 71,981 71,930 72,098 72,340 72,379 72,846 73,080

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . 66.7 66.8 67.0 67.0 66.9 67.1 66.9 66.7 66.8 67.0 67.0 67.3 67.5

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,390 7,001 6,931 6,887 6,953 7,043 7,135 7,047 6,991 6,901 6,912 6,594 6,356

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4 8.9 8.8 8.7 8.8 8.9 9.0 8.9 8.8 8.7 8.7 8.3 8.0

Women, 20 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population1

. . . . . . . 114,894 114,637 114,714 114,792 114,868 114,954 115,045 115,138 115,238 115,338 115,437 115,526 115,602

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68,982 68,843 68,818 68,852 68,860 68,878 68,570 68,706 68,784 68,989 68,981 68,711 68,748

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.0 60.1 60.0 60.0 59.9 59.9 59.6 59.7 59.7 59.8 59.8 59.5 59.5

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63,429 63,403 63,351 63,515 63,431 63,385 63,088 63,257 63,322 63,406 63,520 63,352 63,323

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . 55.2 55.3 55.2 55.3 55.2 55.1 54.8 54.9 54.9 55.0 55.0 54.8 54.8

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,553 5,440 5,467 5,336 5,430 5,493 5,482 5,449 5,462 5,584 5,461 5,359 5,425

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1 7.9 7.9 7.8 7.9 8.0 8.0 7.9 7.9 8.1 7.9 7.8 7.9

Both sexes, 16 to 19 years

Civilian noninstitutional population1

. . . . . . . 16,780 16,863 16,845 16,827 16,809 16,792 16,776 16,760 16,749 16,739 16,728 16,711 16,693

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,748 5,813 5,651 5,735 5,665 5,618 5,724 5,675 5,801 5,774 5,785 5,786 5,704

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.3 34.5 33.5 34.1 33.7 33.5 34.1 33.9 34.6 34.5 34.6 34.6 34.2

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,297 4,334 4,299 4,332 4,255 4,262 4,316 4,262 4,333 4,362 4,398 4,416 4,387

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . 25.6 25.7 25.5 25.7 25.3 25.4 25.7 25.4 25.9 26.1 26.3 26.4 26.3

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,451 1,479 1,352 1,404 1,410 1,356 1,408 1,412 1,467 1,412 1,386 1,370 1,316

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.2 25.4 23.9 24.5 24.9 24.1 24.6 24.9 25.3 24.5 24.0 23.7 23.1

1 The population figures are not adjusted for seasonal variation.

NOTE: Seasonally adjusted data have been revised to reflect updated seasonal adjustment factors.

- 6 -
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Summary table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted

[Numbers in thousands]

Category Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Change from:

Nov. 2011-

Dec. 2011

Employment status

Civilian noninstitutional population............................................ 238,889 240,269 240,441 240,584 143

Civilian labor force............................................................ 153,613 154,057 153,937 153,887 -50

Participation rate........................................................... 64.3 64.1 64.0 64.0 0.0

Employed.................................................................... 139,220 140,297 140,614 140,790 176

Employment-population ratio........................................... 58.3 58.4 58.5 58.5 0.0

Unemployed................................................................. 14,393 13,759 13,323 13,097 -226

Unemployment rate..................................................... 9.4 8.9 8.7 8.5 -0.2

Not in labor force............................................................. 85,276 86,213 86,503 86,697 194

Unemployment rates

Total, 16 years and over....................................................... 9.4 8.9 8.7 8.5 -0.2

Adult men (20 years and over).............................................. 9.4 8.7 8.3 8.0 -0.3

Adult women (20 years and over).......................................... 8.1 7.9 7.8 7.9 0.1

Teenagers (16 to 19 years)................................................. 25.2 24.0 23.7 23.1 -0.6

White........................................................................... 8.5 8.0 7.6 7.5 -0.1

Black or African American................................................... 15.8 15.0 15.5 15.8 0.3

Asian (not seasonally adjusted)............................................. 7.2 7.3 6.5 6.8 –

Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.................................................. 12.9 11.4 11.4 11.0 -0.4

Total, 25 years and over....................................................... 8.0 7.7 7.3 7.2 -0.1

Less than a high school diploma........................................... 15.1 13.8 13.3 13.8 0.5

High school graduates, no college......................................... 9.8 9.5 8.8 8.7 -0.1

Some college or associate degree......................................... 8.2 8.2 7.6 7.7 0.1

Bachelor’s degree and higher............................................... 4.8 4.4 4.4 4.1 -0.3

Reason for unemployment

Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs................... 8,877 7,924 7,599 7,602 3

Job leavers....................................................................... 920 1,068 1,005 953 -52

Reentrants........................................................................ 3,406 3,387 3,355 3,399 44

New entrants..................................................................... 1,306 1,291 1,276 1,280 4

Duration of unemployment

Less than 5 weeks.............................................................. 2,701 2,676 2,510 2,669 159

5 to 14 weeks.................................................................... 3,167 3,285 2,896 2,858 -38

15 to 26 weeks.................................................................. 2,191 2,029 2,087 2,039 -48

27 weeks and over.............................................................. 6,421 5,839 5,680 5,588 -92

Employed persons at work part time

Part time for economic reasons............................................... 8,869 8,790 8,469 8,098 -371

Slack work or business conditions.......................................... 5,954 5,839 5,578 5,305 -273

Could only find part-time work.............................................. 2,501 2,538 2,496 2,419 -77

Part time for noneconomic reasons........................................... 18,189 18,401 18,363 18,372 9

Persons not in the labor force (not seasonally adjusted)

Marginally attached to the labor force........................................ 2,609 2,555 2,591 2,540 –

Discouraged workers......................................................... 1,318 967 1,096 945 –

- Over-the-month changes are not displayed for not seasonally adjusted data.

NOTE: Persons whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. Detail for the seasonally adjusted data shown in this table will not

necessarily add to totals because of the independent seasonal adjustment of the various series. Updated population controls are introduced annually with

the release of January data.
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Summary table B. Establishment data, seasonally adjusted

Category Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

EMPLOYMENT BY SELECTED INDUSTRY

(Over-the-month change, in thousands)

Total nonfarm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 112 100 200

Total private. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 134 120 212

Goods-producing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6 -6 48

Mining and logging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -1 6 5 8

Construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -6 -10 -12 17

Manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 10 1 23

Durable goods1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 15 13 23

Motor vehicles and parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -2.1 9.6 3.5 6.5

Nondurable goods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -2 -5 -12 0

Private service-providing1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 128 126 164

Wholesale trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8 12.3 -1.3 11.6

Retail trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 15.5 38.8 27.9

Transportation and warehousing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.1 4.6 3.1 50.2

Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -5 0 -7 6

Financial activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7 5 2

Professional and business services1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 30 19 12

Temporary help services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.1 5.0 11.2 -7.5

Education and health services1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 37 33 29

Health care and social assistance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.3 29.6 20.2 28.7

Leisure and hospitality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 27 30 21

Other services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 -5 4 4

Government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -15 -22 -20 -12

WOMEN AND PRODUCTION AND NONSUPERVISORY EMPLOYEES

AS A PERCENT OF ALL EMPLOYEES2

Total nonfarm women employees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49.6 49.4 49.4 49.4

Total private women employees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48.2 47.9 47.9 47.9

Total private production and nonsupervisory employees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82.4 82.5 82.5 82.5

HOURS AND EARNINGS

ALL EMPLOYEES

Total private

Average weekly hours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.2 34.4 34.3 34.4

Average hourly earnings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 22.77 $ 23.20 $ 23.20 $ 23.24

Average weekly earnings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $778.73 $798.08 $795.76 $799.46

Index of aggregate weekly hours (2007=100)3

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.6 94.5 94.3 94.8

Over-the-month percent change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.2 0.4 -0.2 0.5

Index of aggregate weekly payrolls (2007=100)4

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.5 104.5 104.3 105.0

Over-the-month percent change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.2 0.7 -0.2 0.7

HOURS AND EARNINGS

PRODUCTION AND NONSUPERVISORY EMPLOYEES

Total private

Average weekly hours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.5 33.7 33.6 33.7

Average hourly earnings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 19.23 $ 19.53 $ 19.54 $ 19.54

Average weekly earnings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $644.21 $658.16 $656.54 $658.50

Index of aggregate weekly hours (2002=100)3

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99.6 101.8 101.6 102.1

Over-the-month percent change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.1 0.5 -0.2 0.5

Index of aggregate weekly payrolls (2002=100)4

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128.0 132.8 132.7 133.4

Over-the-month percent change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.1 0.6 -0.1 0.5

DIFFUSION INDEX

(Over 1-month span)5

Total private. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.6 56.6 50.7 61.2

Manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.3 48.1 40.7 56.8

1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.

2 Data relate to production employees in mining and logging and manufacturing, construction employees in construction, and nonsupervisory employees in the service-providing

industries.

3 The indexes of aggregate weekly hours are calculated by dividing the current month’s estimates of aggregate hours by the corresponding annual average aggregate hours.

4 The indexes of aggregate weekly payrolls are calculated by dividing the current month’s estimates of aggregate weekly payrolls by the corresponding annual average

aggregate weekly payrolls.

5 Figures are the percent of industries with employment increasing plus one-half of the industries with unchanged employment, where 50 percent indicates an equal balance

between industries with increasing and decreasing employment.

p Preliminary
Frequently Asked Questions about Employment and Unemployment Estimates 

Why are there two monthly measures of employment? 

The household survey and establishment survey both produce sample-based estimates of employment 

and both have strengths and limitations. The establishment survey employment series has a smaller 

margin of error on the measurement of month-to-month change than the household survey because of 

its much larger sample size. An over-the-month employment change of about 100,000 is statistically 

significant in the establishment survey, while the threshold for a statistically significant change in the 

household survey is about 400,000. However, the household survey has a more expansive scope than 

the establishment survey because it includes the self-employed, unpaid family workers, agricultural 

workers, and private household workers, who are excluded by the establishment survey. The household 

survey also provides estimates of employment for demographic groups. 

Are undocumented immigrants counted in the surveys? 

It is likely that both surveys include at least some undocumented immigrants. However, neither the 

establishment nor the household survey is designed to identify the legal status of workers. Therefore, it 

is not possible to determine how many are counted in either survey. The establishment survey does not 

collect data on the legal status of workers. The household survey does include questions which identify 

the foreign and native born, but it does not include questions about the legal status of the foreign born. 

Why does the establishment survey have revisions? 

The establishment survey revises published estimates to improve its data series by incorporating 

additional information that was not available at the time of the initial publication of the estimates. 

The establishment survey revises its initial monthly estimates twice, in the immediately succeeding 

2 months, to incorporate additional sample receipts from respondents in the survey and recalculated 

seasonal adjustment factors. For more information on the monthly revisions, please visit 

www.bls.gov/ces/cesrevinfo.htm. 

On an annual basis, the establishment survey incorporates a benchmark revision that re-anchors 

estimates to nearly complete employment counts available from unemployment insurance tax records. 

The benchmark helps to control for sampling and modeling errors in the estimates. For more information 

on the annual benchmark revision, please visit www.bls.gov/web/cesbmart.htm. 

Does the establishment survey sample include small firms? 

Yes; about 40 percent of the establishment survey sample is comprised of business establishments with 

fewer than 20 employees. The establishment survey sample is designed to maximize the reliability of the 

total nonfarm employment estimate; firms from all size classes and industries are appropriately sampled 

to achieve that goal. 

Does the establishment survey account for employment from new businesses? 

Yes; monthly establishment survey estimates include an adjustment to account for the net employment 

change generated by business births and deaths. The adjustment comes from an econometric model that 

forecasts the monthly net jobs impact of business births and deaths based on the actual past values of the 

net impact that can be observed with a lag from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. The 
 

establishment survey uses modeling rather than sampling for this purpose because the survey is not 

immediately able to bring new businesses into the sample. There is an unavoidable lag between the birth 

of a new firm and its appearance on the sampling frame and availability for selection. BLS adds new 

businesses to the survey twice a year. 

Is the count of unemployed persons limited to just those people receiving unemployment insurance 

benefits? 

No; the estimate of unemployment is based on a monthly sample survey of households. All persons who 

are without jobs and are actively seeking and available to work are included among the unemployed. (People 

on temporary layoff are included even if they do not actively seek work.) There is no requirement or 

question relating to unemployment insurance benefits in the monthly survey. 

Does the official unemployment rate exclude people who have stopped looking for work? 

Yes; however, there are separate estimates of persons outside the labor force who want a job, including 

those who have stopped looking because they believe no jobs are available (discouraged workers). In 

addition, alternative measures of labor underutilization (some of which include discouraged workers and 

other groups not officially counted as unemployed) are published each month in The Employment 

Situation news release. 

How can unusually severe weather affect employment and hours estimates? 

In the establishment survey, the reference period is the pay period that includes the 12th of the month. 

Unusually severe weather is more likely to have an impact on average weekly hours than on employment. Average weekly hours are estimated for paid time during the pay period, including pay for 

holidays, sick leave, or other time off. The impact of severe weather on hours estimates typically, but 

not always, results in a reduction in average weekly hours. For example, some employees may be off 

work for part of the pay period and not receive pay for the time missed, while some workers, such as 

those dealing with cleanup or repair, may work extra hours. 

In order for severe weather conditions to reduce the estimate of payroll employment, employees have to 

be off work without pay for the entire pay period. About half of all employees in the payroll survey have 

a 2-week, semi-monthly, or monthly pay period. Employees who receive pay for any part of the pay 

period, even 1 hour, are counted in the payroll employment figures. It is not possible to quantify the 

effect of extreme weather on estimates of employment from the establishment survey. 

In the household survey, the reference period is generally the calendar week that includes the 12th of the 

month. Persons who miss the entire week’s work for weather-related events are counted as employed 

whether or not they are paid for the time off. The household survey collects data on the number of 

persons who usually work full time but had reduced hours, or had a job but were not at work the entire 

week, due to bad weather. Current and historical data are available on the household survey’s most 

requested statistics page at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ln. 
Technical Note 

This news release presents statistics from two major 

surveys, the Current Population Survey (household survey) 

and the Current Employment Statistics survey (establishment survey). The household survey provides information on the labor force, employment, and unemployment 

that appears in the "A" tables, marked HOUSEHOLD 

DATA. It is a sample survey of about 60,000 households 

conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau 

of Labor Statistics (BLS). 

The establishment survey provides information on 

employment, hours, and earnings of employees on nonfarm payrolls; the data appear in the "B" tables, marked 

ESTABLISHMENT DATA. BLS collects these data each 

month from the payroll records of a sample of nonagricultural business establishments. The sample includes about 

140,000 businesses and government agencies representing 

approximately 440,000 worksites and is drawn from a sampling frame of roughly 9 million unemployment insurance 

tax accounts. The active sample includes approximately 

one-third of all nonfarm payroll employees. 

For both surveys, the data for a given month relate to a 

particular week or pay period. In the household survey, the 

reference period is generally the calendar week that 

contains the 12th day of the month. In the establishment 

survey, the reference period is the pay period including the 

12th, which may or may not correspond directly to the 

calendar week. 

Coverage, definitions, and differences between surveys 

Household survey. The sample is selected to reflect 

the entire civilian noninstitutional population. Based on 

responses to a series of questions on work and job search 

activities, each person 16 years and over in a sample 

household is classified as employed, unemployed, or not in 

the labor force. 

People are classified as employed if they did any work 

at all as paid employees during the reference week; worked 

in their own business, profession, or on their own farm; or 

worked without pay at least 15 hours in a family business or 

farm. People are also counted as employed if they were 

temporarily absent from their jobs because of illness, bad 

weather, vacation, labor-management disputes, or personal 

reasons. 

People are classified as unemployed if they meet all of 

the following criteria: they had no employment during the 

reference week; they were available for work at that time; 

and they made specific efforts to find employment 

sometime during the 4-week period ending with the 

reference week. Persons laid off from a job and expecting 

recall need not be looking for work to be counted as 

unemployed. The unemployment data derived from the 

household survey in no way depend upon the eligibility for 

or receipt of unemployment insurance benefits. 

The civilian labor force is the sum of employed and 

unemployed persons. Those not classified as employed or 

unemployed are not in the labor force. The unemployment 

rate is the number unemployed as a percent of the labor 

force. The labor force participation rate is the labor force 

as a percent of the population, and the employment-population ratio is the employed as a percent of the population. 

Additional information about the household survey can be 

found at www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm. 

Establishment survey. The sample establishments are 

drawn from private nonfarm businesses such as factories, 

offices, and stores, as well as from federal, state, and local 

government entities. Employees on nonfarm payrolls are 

those who received pay for any part of the reference pay 

period, including persons on paid leave. Persons are 

counted in each job they hold. Hours and earnings data are 

produced for the private sector for all employees and for 

production and nonsupervisory employees. Production and 

nonsupervisory employees are defined as production and 

related employees in manufacturing and mining and 

logging, construction workers in construction, and nonsupervisory employees in private service-providing industries. 

Industries are classified on the basis of an establishment's principal activity in accordance with the 2007 

version of the North American Industry Classification 

System. Additional information about the establishment 

survey can be found at www.bls.gov/ces/#technical. 

Differences in employment estimates. The numerous conceptual and methodological differences between 

the household and establishment surveys result in important distinctions in the employment estimates derived from 

the surveys. Among these are: 

 The household survey includes agricultural 

workers, the self-employed, unpaid family 

workers, and private household workers among the 

employed. These groups are excluded from the 

establishment survey. 

 The household survey includes people on unpaid 

leave among the employed. The establishment 

survey does not. 

 The household survey is limited to workers 16 

years of age and older. The establishment survey is 

not limited by age. 

 The household survey has no duplication of 

individuals, because individuals are counted only 

once, even if they hold more than one job. In the 

establishment survey, employees working at more 

than one job and thus appearing on more than one 

payroll are counted separately for each appearance. 

 
Seasonal adjustment 

Over the course of a year, the size of the nation's labor 

force and the levels of employment and unemployment 

undergo regularly occurring fluctuations. These events may 

result from seasonal changes in weather, major holidays, 

and the opening and closing of schools. The effect of such 

seasonal variation can be very large. 

Because these seasonal events follow a more or less 

regular pattern each year, their influence on the level of a 

series can be tempered by adjusting for regular seasonal 

variation. These adjustments make nonseasonal 

developments, such as declines in employment or increases 

in the participation of women in the labor force, easier to 

spot. For example, in the household survey, the large 

number of youth entering the labor force each June is likely 

to obscure any other changes that have taken place relative 

to May, making it difficult to determine if the level of 

economic activity has risen or declined. Similarly, in the 

establishment survey, payroll employment in education 

declines by about 20 percent at the end of the spring term 

and later rises with the start of the fall term, obscuring the 

underlying employment trends in the industry. Because 

seasonal employment changes at the end and beginning of 

the school year can be estimated, the statistics can be 

adjusted to make underlying employment patterns more 

discernable. The seasonally adjusted figures provide a more 

useful tool with which to analyze changes in month-tomonth economic activity. 

Many seasonally adjusted series are independently 

adjusted in both the household and establishment surveys. 

However, the adjusted series for many major estimates, 

such as total payroll employment, employment in most 

major sectors, total employment, and unemployment are 

computed by aggregating independently adjusted 

component series. For example, total unemployment is 

derived by summing the adjusted series for four major agesex components; this differs from the unemployment 

estimate that would be obtained by directly adjusting the 

total or by combining the duration, reasons, or more 

detailed age categories. 

For both the household and establishment surveys, a 

concurrent seasonal adjustment methodology is used in 

which new seasonal factors are calculated each month using 

all relevant data, up to and including the data for the current 

month. In the household survey, new seasonal factors are 

used to adjust only the current month's data. In the 

establishment survey, however, new seasonal factors are 

used each month to adjust the three most recent monthly 

estimates. The prior 2 months are routinely revised to 

incorporate additional sample reports and recalculated 

seasonal adjustment factors. In both surveys, 5-year 

revisions to historical data are made once a year. 

Reliability of the estimates 

Statistics based on the household and establishment 

surveys are subject to both sampling and nonsampling 

error. When a sample rather than the entire population is 

surveyed, there is a chance that the sample estimates may 

differ from the "true" population values they represent. The 

exact difference, or sampling error, varies depending on the 

particular sample selected, and this variability is measured 

by the standard error of the estimate. There is about a 90-

percent chance, or level of confidence, that an estimate 

based on a sample will differ by no more than 1.6 standard 

errors from the "true" population value because of sampling 

error. BLS analyses are generally conducted at the 90-

percent level of confidence. 

For example, the confidence interval for the monthly 

change in total nonfarm employment from the 

establishment survey is on the order of plus or minus 

100,000. Suppose the estimate of nonfarm employment 

increases by 50,000 from one month to the next. The 90-

percent confidence interval on the monthly change would 

range from -50,000 to +150,000 (50,000 +/- 100,000). 

These figures do not mean that the sample results are off by 

these magnitudes, but rather that there is about a 90-percent 

chance that the "true" over-the-month change lies within 

this interval. Since this range includes values of less than 

zero, we could not say with confidence that nonfarm 

employment had, in fact, increased that month. If, however, 

the reported nonfarm employment rise was 250,000, then 

all of the values within the 90-percent confidence interval 

would be greater than zero. In this case, it is likely (at least 

a 90-percent chance) that nonfarm employment had, in fact, 

risen that month. At an unemployment rate of around 5.5 

percent, the 90-percent confidence interval for the monthly 

change in unemployment as measured by the household 

survey is about +/- 280,000, and for the monthly change in 

the unemployment rate it is about +/- 0.19 percentage point. 

In general, estimates involving many individuals or 

establishments have lower standard errors (relative to the 

size of the estimate) than estimates which are based on a 

small number of observations. The precision of estimates 

also is improved when the data are cumulated over time, 

such as for quarterly and annual averages. 

The household and establishment surveys are also 

affected by nonsampling error, which can occur for many 

reasons, including the failure to sample a segment of the 

population, inability to obtain information for all 

respondents in the sample, inability or unwillingness of 

respondents to provide correct information on a timely 

basis, mistakes made by respondents, and errors made in 

the collection or processing of the data. 

For example, in the establishment survey, estimates 

for the most recent 2 months are based on incomplete 

returns; for this reason, these estimates are labeled 

preliminary in the tables. It is only after two successive 

revisions to a monthly estimate, when nearly all sample 

reports have been received, that the estimate is considered 

final. 

Another major source of nonsampling error in the 

establishment survey is the inability to capture, on a timely 

basis, employment generated by new firms. To correct for 

this systematic underestimation of employment growth, an 

estimation procedure with two components is used to 

account for business births. The first component excludes 
employment losses from business deaths from samplebased estimation in order to offset the missing employment 

gains from business births. This is incorporated into the 

sample-based estimation procedure by simply not reflecting 

sample units going out of business, but imputing to them 

the same employment trend as the other firms in the 

sample. This procedure accounts for most of the net 

birth/death employment. 

The second component is an ARIMA time series 

model designed to estimate the residual net birth/death 

employment not accounted for by the imputation. The 

historical time series used to create and test the ARIMA 

model was derived from the unemployment insurance 

universe micro-level database, and reflects the actual 

residual net of births and deaths over the past 5 years. 

The sample-based estimates from the establishment 

survey are adjusted once a year (on a lagged basis) to 

universe counts of payroll employment obtained from 

administrative records of the unemployment insurance 

program. The difference between the March sample-based 

employment estimates and the March universe counts is 

known as a benchmark revision, and serves as a rough 

proxy for total survey error. The new benchmarks also 

incorporate changes in the classification of industries. Over 

the past decade, absolute benchmark revisions for total 

nonfarm employment have averaged 0.3 percent, with a 

range from -0.7 to 0.6 percent. 

Other information 

Information in this release will be made available to 

sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 

(202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339. 
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-1. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age

[Numbers in thousands]

Employment status, sex, and age

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted1

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

TOTAL

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238,889 240,441 240,584 238,889 239,871 240,071 240,269 240,441 240,584

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153,156 153,683 153,373 153,613 153,674 154,004 154,057 153,937 153,887

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.1 63.9 63.8 64.3 64.1 64.1 64.1 64.0 64.0

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139,159 141,070 140,681 139,220 139,754 140,107 140,297 140,614 140,790

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.3 58.7 58.5 58.3 58.3 58.4 58.4 58.5 58.5

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,997 12,613 12,692 14,393 13,920 13,897 13,759 13,323 13,097

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1 8.2 8.3 9.4 9.1 9.0 8.9 8.7 8.5

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85,733 86,757 87,212 85,276 86,198 86,067 86,213 86,503 86,697

Persons who currently want a job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,212 6,183 6,135 6,482 6,469 6,240 6,407 6,595 6,385

Men, 16 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115,731 116,755 116,832 115,731 116,453 116,559 116,664 116,755 116,832

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81,504 82,080 82,019 81,810 82,025 82,142 82,199 82,341 82,373

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.4 70.3 70.2 70.7 70.4 70.5 70.5 70.5 70.5

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73,226 75,157 74,837 73,607 74,209 74,435 74,492 74,975 75,235

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.3 64.4 64.1 63.6 63.7 63.9 63.9 64.2 64.4

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,278 6,923 7,181 8,202 7,817 7,707 7,707 7,366 7,138

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2 8.4 8.8 10.0 9.5 9.4 9.4 8.9 8.7

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34,228 34,674 34,813 33,922 34,428 34,417 34,465 34,414 34,459

Men, 20 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107,216 108,203 108,290 107,216 107,884 107,994 108,104 108,203 108,290

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78,780 79,378 79,288 78,884 79,089 79,241 79,291 79,440 79,436

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.5 73.4 73.2 73.6 73.3 73.4 73.3 73.4 73.4

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71,235 73,183 72,812 71,494 72,098 72,340 72,379 72,846 73,080

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.4 67.6 67.2 66.7 66.8 67.0 67.0 67.3 67.5

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,545 6,195 6,477 7,390 6,991 6,901 6,912 6,594 6,356

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.6 7.8 8.2 9.4 8.8 8.7 8.7 8.3 8.0

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28,436 28,825 29,001 28,332 28,795 28,753 28,813 28,763 28,854

Women, 16 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123,158 123,686 123,753 123,158 123,418 123,512 123,605 123,686 123,753

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71,653 71,603 71,354 71,804 71,648 71,862 71,858 71,596 71,514

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.2 57.9 57.7 58.3 58.1 58.2 58.1 57.9 57.8

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65,933 65,913 65,843 65,613 65,545 65,672 65,805 65,639 65,555

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53.5 53.3 53.2 53.3 53.1 53.2 53.2 53.1 53.0

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,719 5,690 5,511 6,191 6,103 6,190 6,052 5,957 5,959

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.0 7.9 7.7 8.6 8.5 8.6 8.4 8.3 8.3

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51,505 52,083 52,398 51,354 51,770 51,650 51,748 52,090 52,238

Women, 20 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114,894 115,526 115,602 114,894 115,238 115,338 115,437 115,526 115,602

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68,999 68,850 68,746 68,982 68,784 68,989 68,981 68,711 68,748

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.1 59.6 59.5 60.0 59.7 59.8 59.8 59.5 59.5

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63,809 63,710 63,676 63,429 63,322 63,406 63,520 63,352 63,323

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.5 55.1 55.1 55.2 54.9 55.0 55.0 54.8 54.8

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,190 5,140 5,070 5,553 5,462 5,584 5,461 5,359 5,425

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 7.5 7.4 8.1 7.9 8.1 7.9 7.8 7.9

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45,895 46,675 46,856 45,912 46,454 46,349 46,457 46,815 46,854

Both sexes, 16 to 19 years

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,780 16,711 16,693 16,780 16,749 16,739 16,728 16,711 16,693

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,378 5,454 5,339 5,748 5,801 5,774 5,785 5,786 5,704

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.0 32.6 32.0 34.3 34.6 34.5 34.6 34.6 34.2

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,116 4,177 4,193 4,297 4,333 4,362 4,398 4,416 4,387

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.5 25.0 25.1 25.6 25.9 26.1 26.3 26.4 26.3

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,262 1,277 1,146 1,451 1,467 1,412 1,386 1,370 1,316

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.5 23.4 21.5 25.2 25.3 24.5 24.0 23.7 23.1

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,402 11,257 11,354 11,032 10,949 10,965 10,943 10,925 10,989

1 The population figures are not adjusted for seasonal variation; therefore, identical numbers appear in the unadjusted and seasonally adjusted columns.

NOTE: Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-2. Employment status of the civilian population by race, sex, and age

[Numbers in thousands]

Employment status, race, sex, and age

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted1

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

WHITE

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192,749 193,598 193,682 192,749 193,236 193,365 193,493 193,598 193,682

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124,309 124,565 124,114 124,719 124,604 124,701 124,804 124,652 124,543

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.5 64.3 64.1 64.7 64.5 64.5 64.5 64.4 64.3

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114,035 115,584 115,117 114,150 114,704 114,818 114,837 115,130 115,254

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.2 59.7 59.4 59.2 59.4 59.4 59.3 59.5 59.5

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,274 8,981 8,998 10,569 9,901 9,883 9,967 9,522 9,288

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 7.2 7.2 8.5 7.9 7.9 8.0 7.6 7.5

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68,439 69,033 69,567 68,030 68,631 68,664 68,689 68,945 69,139

Men, 20 years and over

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64,978 65,407 65,248 65,063 65,139 65,280 65,318 65,366 65,373

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.9 73.9 73.7 74.0 73.8 73.9 73.9 73.9 73.8

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59,280 60,938 60,484 59,537 60,155 60,283 60,195 60,605 60,751

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.4 68.9 68.3 67.7 68.1 68.2 68.1 68.5 68.6

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,698 4,469 4,764 5,525 4,984 4,998 5,123 4,761 4,623

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.8 6.8 7.3 8.5 7.7 7.7 7.8 7.3 7.1

Women, 20 years and over

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54,927 54,659 54,516 54,905 54,649 54,691 54,685 54,520 54,481

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.7 59.2 59.0 59.7 59.3 59.3 59.3 59.1 59.0

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51,261 51,091 51,080 50,941 50,829 50,807 50,880 50,774 50,768

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.7 55.3 55.3 55.3 55.2 55.1 55.1 55.0 55.0

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,667 3,568 3,435 3,964 3,820 3,884 3,805 3,746 3,713

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7 6.5 6.3 7.2 7.0 7.1 7.0 6.9 6.8

Both sexes, 16 to 19 years

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,404 4,499 4,350 4,751 4,816 4,730 4,801 4,766 4,688

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.4 35.2 34.1 37.1 37.6 37.0 37.6 37.3 36.8

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,494 3,555 3,552 3,671 3,720 3,728 3,761 3,751 3,736

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.3 27.8 27.8 28.7 29.1 29.1 29.4 29.4 29.3

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910 944 798 1,079 1,097 1,002 1,040 1,015 952

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.7 21.0 18.3 22.7 22.8 21.2 21.7 21.3 20.3

BLACK OR AFRICAN AMERICAN

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28,896 29,259 29,286 28,896 29,158 29,193 29,228 29,259 29,286

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,835 17,900 18,024 17,933 17,957 18,096 18,067 17,934 18,110

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.7 61.2 61.5 62.1 61.6 62.0 61.8 61.3 61.8

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,120 15,236 15,285 15,098 14,965 15,224 15,351 15,151 15,248

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.3 52.1 52.2 52.2 51.3 52.1 52.5 51.8 52.1

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,715 2,664 2,739 2,836 2,992 2,872 2,716 2,783 2,862

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.2 14.9 15.2 15.8 16.7 15.9 15.0 15.5 15.8

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,061 11,359 11,262 10,963 11,202 11,097 11,161 11,325 11,176

Men, 20 years and over

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,079 8,185 8,264 8,089 8,178 8,151 8,180 8,195 8,272

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68.8 68.4 69.0 68.9 68.7 68.3 68.5 68.5 69.0

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,758 6,917 7,006 6,732 6,703 6,796 6,867 6,851 6,969

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.6 57.8 58.5 57.4 56.3 57.0 57.5 57.3 58.2

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,321 1,268 1,258 1,358 1,475 1,355 1,313 1,344 1,302

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.4 15.5 15.2 16.8 18.0 16.6 16.0 16.4 15.7

Women, 20 years and over

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,141 9,106 9,113 9,195 9,154 9,277 9,262 9,095 9,160

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.9 61.9 61.8 63.3 62.4 63.2 63.0 61.8 62.2

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,998 7,948 7,886 8,002 7,926 8,051 8,093 7,911 7,885

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.0 54.0 53.5 55.1 54.1 54.8 55.0 53.7 53.5

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,143 1,158 1,227 1,192 1,228 1,226 1,169 1,184 1,275

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.5 12.7 13.5 13.0 13.4 13.2 12.6 13.0 13.9

Both sexes, 16 to 19 years

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615 608 647 649 625 667 625 643 679

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.4 23.7 25.3 24.7 24.2 25.8 24.3 25.0 26.5

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 370 394 363 335 377 390 388 393

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.9 14.4 15.4 13.8 13.0 14.6 15.2 15.1 15.3

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 238 254 286 289 291 234 255 286

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.7 39.1 39.2 44.0 46.3 43.6 37.5 39.6 42.1

ASIAN

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,387 11,589 11,580 – – – – – –

See footnotes at end of table.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-2. Employment status of the civilian population by race, sex, and age — Continued

[Numbers in thousands]

Employment status, race, sex, and age

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted1

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,355 7,419 7,505 – – – – – –

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.6 64.0 64.8 – – – – – –

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,829 6,939 6,991 – – – – – –

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.0 59.9 60.4 – – – – – –

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 480 514 – – – – – –

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 6.5 6.8 – – – – – –

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,032 4,170 4,075 – – – – – –

1 The population figures are not adjusted for seasonal variation; therefore, identical numbers appear in the unadjusted and seasonally adjusted columns.

- Data not available.

NOTE: Estimates for the above race groups will not sum to totals shown in table A-1 because data are not presented for all races. Updated population controls are introduced

annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-3. Employment status of the Hispanic or Latino population by sex and age

[Numbers in thousands]

Employment status, sex, and age

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted1

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

HISPANIC OR LATINO ETHNICITY

Civilian noninstitutional population.................. 34,188 34,808 34,885 34,188 34,555 34,640 34,724 34,808 34,885

Civilian labor force................................. 22,929 23,255 23,309 22,873 22,938 23,014 23,253 23,222 23,270

Participation rate................................. 67.1 66.8 66.8 66.9 66.4 66.4 67.0 66.7 66.7

Employed......................................... 19,957 20,684 20,731 19,916 20,353 20,411 20,601 20,574 20,699

Employment-population ratio................ 58.4 59.4 59.4 58.3 58.9 58.9 59.3 59.1 59.3

Unemployed...................................... 2,972 2,571 2,579 2,957 2,585 2,603 2,652 2,648 2,571

Unemployment rate........................... 13.0 11.1 11.1 12.9 11.3 11.3 11.4 11.4 11.0

Not in labor force................................... 11,259 11,553 11,575 11,315 11,617 11,626 11,471 11,586 11,615

Men, 20 years and over

Civilian labor force................................. 13,115 13,169 13,256 – – – – – –

Participation rate................................. 82.3 81.7 82.0 – – – – – –

Employed......................................... 11,431 11,884 11,868 – – – – – –

Employment-population ratio................ 71.7 73.7 73.4 – – – – – –

Unemployed...................................... 1,684 1,285 1,387 – – – – – –

Unemployment rate........................... 12.8 9.8 10.5 – – – – – –

Women, 20 years and over

Civilian labor force................................. 8,880 9,085 9,082 – – – – – –

Participation rate................................. 59.2 59.6 59.4 – – – – – –

Employed......................................... 7,892 8,118 8,146 – – – – – –

Employment-population ratio................ 52.7 53.2 53.3 – – – – – –

Unemployed...................................... 988 967 936 – – – – – –

Unemployment rate........................... 11.1 10.6 10.3 – – – – – –

Both sexes, 16 to 19 years

Civilian labor force................................. 934 1,000 972 – – – – – –

Participation rate................................. 28.6 29.2 28.3 – – – – – –

Employed......................................... 633 682 716 – – – – – –

Employment-population ratio................ 19.4 19.9 20.9 – – – – – –

Unemployed...................................... 300 319 256 – – – – – –

Unemployment rate........................... 32.2 31.8 26.3 – – – – – –

1 The population figures are not adjusted for seasonal variation; therefore, identical numbers appear in the unadjusted and seasonally adjusted columns.

- Data not available.

NOTE: Persons whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release

of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-4. Employment status of the civilian population 25 years and over by educational attainment

[Numbers in thousands]

Educational attainment

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Less than a high school diploma

Civilian labor force.................................... 11,773 11,673 11,723 11,724 11,682 11,746 11,760 11,713 11,688

Participation rate.................................... 46.1 46.8 46.8 45.9 46.8 46.5 47.4 47.0 46.7

Employed............................................ 9,924 10,190 10,043 9,954 10,030 10,108 10,141 10,161 10,080

Employment-population ratio................... 38.9 40.9 40.1 39.0 40.2 40.0 40.8 40.8 40.3

Unemployed......................................... 1,850 1,483 1,680 1,770 1,652 1,638 1,619 1,552 1,608

Unemployment rate.............................. 15.7 12.7 14.3 15.1 14.1 13.9 13.8 13.3 13.8

High school graduates, no college1

Civilian labor force.................................... 38,231 37,089 37,114 37,974 37,030 37,290 37,368 37,089 36,902

Participation rate.................................... 60.9 60.3 60.1 60.5 60.1 60.5 60.5 60.3 59.8

Employed............................................ 34,470 33,970 33,876 34,235 33,512 33,711 33,828 33,807 33,684

Employment-population ratio................... 54.9 55.2 54.9 54.6 54.4 54.7 54.8 54.9 54.5

Unemployed......................................... 3,761 3,119 3,237 3,739 3,518 3,579 3,540 3,282 3,218

Unemployment rate.............................. 9.8 8.4 8.7 9.8 9.5 9.6 9.5 8.8 8.7

Some college or associate degree

Civilian labor force.................................... 36,763 37,086 37,040 36,794 37,011 37,070 36,984 36,816 37,024

Participation rate.................................... 70.1 69.0 69.1 70.1 69.2 69.3 69.2 68.5 69.1

Employed............................................ 33,869 34,347 34,299 33,783 33,976 33,963 33,941 34,009 34,167

Employment-population ratio................... 64.6 63.9 64.0 64.4 63.5 63.5 63.5 63.3 63.7

Unemployed......................................... 2,894 2,739 2,740 3,011 3,035 3,106 3,043 2,807 2,857

Unemployment rate.............................. 7.9 7.4 7.4 8.2 8.2 8.4 8.2 7.6 7.7

Bachelor’s degree and higher2

Civilian labor force.................................... 46,310 47,147 47,102 46,339 46,802 46,923 47,006 47,117 47,131

Participation rate.................................... 76.9 76.0 76.0 77.0 76.0 76.3 75.8 75.9 76.0

Employed............................................ 44,170 45,161 45,228 44,133 44,798 44,936 44,960 45,058 45,201

Employment-population ratio................... 73.4 72.8 73.0 73.3 72.7 73.0 72.5 72.6 72.9

Unemployed......................................... 2,140 1,985 1,873 2,205 2,004 1,986 2,046 2,059 1,930

Unemployment rate.............................. 4.6 4.2 4.0 4.8 4.3 4.2 4.4 4.4 4.1

1 Includes persons with a high school diploma or equivalent.

2 Includes persons with bachelor’s, master’s, professional, and doctoral degrees.

NOTE: Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-5. Employment status of the civilian population 18 years and over by veteran status, period of service,

and sex, not seasonally adjusted

[Numbers in thousands]

Employment status, veteran status, and period of service

Total Men Women

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

VETERANS, 18 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21,833 21,429 20,039 19,622 1,794 1,807

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,534 11,072 10,390 10,010 1,144 1,062

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.8 51.7 51.8 51.0 63.8 58.8

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,576 10,215 9,509 9,244 1,067 972

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48.4 47.7 47.5 47.1 59.5 53.8

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 957 857 881 766 77 90

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 7.7 8.5 7.7 6.7 8.5

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,299 10,357 9,649 9,612 650 745

Gulf War-era II veterans

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,242 2,341 1,897 1,984 345 356

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,794 1,899 1,558 1,668 236 230

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.0 81.1 82.1 84.1 68.3 64.6

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,584 1,650 1,374 1,469 210 181

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.7 70.5 72.4 74.1 60.8 50.7

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 248 184 199 26 50

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.7 13.1 11.8 11.9 10.9 21.6

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448 442 339 316 109 126

Gulf War-era I veterans

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,924 2,986 2,470 2,489 454 497

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,530 2,512 2,163 2,158 367 354

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.5 84.1 87.6 86.7 80.9 71.3

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,395 2,371 2,039 2,029 356 342

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.9 79.4 82.5 81.5 78.5 68.8

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 141 125 128 11 13

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0 3.0 3.6

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394 474 307 332 87 142

World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam-era veterans

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,796 10,207 10,448 9,886 348 321

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,847 3,309 3,718 3,215 129 94

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.6 32.4 35.6 32.5 37.2 29.3

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,516 3,097 3,395 3,003 122 94

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.6 30.3 32.5 30.4 34.9 29.3

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 212 323 212 8 0

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.6 6.4 8.7 6.6 6.1 0.0

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,949 6,898 6,730 6,671 219 227

Veterans of other service periods

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,871 5,895 5,224 5,262 647 633

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,362 3,352 2,951 2,969 412 383

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.3 56.9 56.5 56.4 63.6 60.5

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,081 3,097 2,701 2,742 380 355

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.5 52.5 51.7 52.1 58.7 56.1

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 255 249 227 32 28

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4 7.6 8.5 7.6 7.8 7.3

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,508 2,543 2,273 2,293 235 250

NONVETERANS, 18 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208,058 210,477 91,143 92,807 116,915 117,670

Civilian labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139,806 140,627 70,228 71,182 69,578 69,446

Participation rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.2 66.8 77.1 76.7 59.5 59.0

Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127,220 129,218 63,082 65,018 64,138 64,200

Employment-population ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.1 61.4 69.2 70.1 54.9 54.6

Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,586 11,409 7,146 6,163 5,440 5,246

Unemployment rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.0 8.1 10.2 8.7 7.8 7.6

Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68,252 69,850 20,915 21,625 47,338 48,225

NOTE: Veterans served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces and were not on active duty at the time of the survey. Nonveterans never served on active duty in the U.S.

Armed Forces. Veterans could have served anywhere in the world during these periods of service: Gulf War era II (September 2001-present), Gulf War era I (August 1990-August

2001), Vietnam era (August 1964-April 1975), Korean War (July 1950-January 1955), World War II (December 1941-December 1946), and other service periods (all other time

periods). Veterans who served in more than one wartime period are classified only in the most recent one. Veterans who served during one of the selected wartime periods and

another period are classified only in the wartime period. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-6. Employment status of the civilian population by sex, age, and disability status, not seasonally

adjusted

[Numbers in thousands]

Employment status, sex, and age

Persons with a disability Persons with no disability

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

TOTAL, 16 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population....................................................... 26,984 27,339 211,905 213,246

Civilian labor force...................................................................... 5,679 5,652 147,477 147,721

Participation rate...................................................................... 21.0 20.7 69.6 69.3

Employed.............................................................................. 4,869 4,889 134,290 135,791

Employment-population ratio..................................................... 18.0 17.9 63.4 63.7

Unemployed........................................................................... 810 763 13,187 11,929

Unemployment rate................................................................ 14.3 13.5 8.9 8.1

Not in labor force........................................................................ 21,305 21,687 64,428 65,525

Men, 16 to 64 years

Civilian labor force...................................................................... 2,591 2,587 75,101 75,294

Participation rate...................................................................... 34.6 34.4 82.2 82.3

Employed.............................................................................. 2,190 2,165 67,517 68,793

Employment-population ratio..................................................... 29.3 28.8 73.9 75.2

Unemployed........................................................................... 401 422 7,584 6,501

Unemployment rate................................................................ 15.5 16.3 10.1 8.6

Not in labor force........................................................................ 4,895 4,938 16,208 16,228

Women, 16 to 64 years

Civilian labor force...................................................................... 2,310 2,216 66,303 65,916

Participation rate...................................................................... 31.2 29.8 70.8 70.3

Employed.............................................................................. 1,966 1,938 61,110 60,891

Employment-population ratio..................................................... 26.5 26.1 65.3 65.0

Unemployed........................................................................... 344 278 5,193 5,025

Unemployment rate................................................................ 14.9 12.5 7.8 7.6

Not in labor force........................................................................ 5,097 5,220 27,339 27,821

Both sexes, 65 years and over

Civilian labor force...................................................................... 778 849 6,073 6,511

Participation rate...................................................................... 6.4 6.9 22.5 23.3

Employed.............................................................................. 713 786 5,662 6,107

Employment-population ratio..................................................... 5.9 6.4 21.0 21.8

Unemployed........................................................................... 65 63 410 403

Unemployment rate................................................................ 8.4 7.4 6.8 6.2

Not in labor force........................................................................ 11,312 11,529 20,881 21,475

NOTE: A person with a disability has at least one of the following conditions: is deaf or has serious difficulty hearing; is blind or has serious difficulty seeing

even when wearing glasses; has serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition;

has serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs; has difficulty dressing or bathing; or has difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or

shopping because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-7. Employment status of the civilian population by nativity and sex, not seasonally adjusted

[Numbers in thousands]

Employment status and nativity

Total Men Women

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Foreign born, 16 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population.................................... 36,545 36,851 18,042 18,201 18,503 18,650

Civilian labor force................................................... 24,783 24,836 14,441 14,479 10,342 10,357

Participation rate................................................... 67.8 67.4 80.0 79.5 55.9 55.5

Employed........................................................... 22,153 22,647 12,856 13,271 9,297 9,376

Employment-population ratio.................................. 60.6 61.5 71.3 72.9 50.2 50.3

Unemployed........................................................ 2,630 2,189 1,584 1,208 1,045 981

Unemployment rate............................................. 10.6 8.8 11.0 8.3 10.1 9.5

Not in labor force..................................................... 11,762 12,015 3,602 3,723 8,160 8,292

Native born, 16 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population.................................... 202,344 203,733 97,689 98,630 104,655 105,103

Civilian labor force................................................... 128,373 128,536 67,063 67,540 61,310 60,997

Participation rate................................................... 63.4 63.1 68.6 68.5 58.6 58.0

Employed........................................................... 117,006 118,033 60,370 61,566 56,636 56,467

Employment-population ratio.................................. 57.8 57.9 61.8 62.4 54.1 53.7

Unemployed........................................................ 11,367 10,503 6,693 5,973 4,674 4,530

Unemployment rate............................................. 8.9 8.2 10.0 8.8 7.6 7.4

Not in labor force..................................................... 73,971 75,197 30,626 31,091 43,345 44,106

NOTE: The foreign born are those residing in the United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth. That is, they were born outside the United States or

one of its outlying areas such as Puerto Rico or Guam, to parents neither of whom was a U.S. citizen. The native born are persons who were born in the

United States or one of its outlying areas such as Puerto Rico or Guam or who were born abroad of at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen. Updated

population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-8. Employed persons by class of worker and part-time status

[In thousands]

Category

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

CLASS OF WORKER

Agriculture and related industries................... 2,037 2,176 2,196 2,173 2,373 2,268 2,257 2,262 2,349

Wage and salary workers1....................... 1,295 1,319 1,358 1,366 1,484 1,379 1,317 1,359 1,429

Self-employed workers, unincorporated......... 720 824 823 765 848 843 864 849 874

Unpaid family workers............................. 22 33 15 – – – – – –

Nonagricultural industries............................ 137,123 138,894 138,485 137,036 137,290 137,932 138,167 138,304 138,411

Wage and salary workers1

....................... 128,436 130,261 129,966 128,121 128,700 129,595 129,531 129,604 129,662

Government...................................... 20,745 20,525 20,652 20,724 20,309 20,568 20,516 20,434 20,616

Private industries................................ 107,691 109,736 109,314 107,419 108,416 108,774 108,977 109,159 109,064

Private households............................ 635 674 640 – – – – – –

Other industries............................... 107,056 109,062 108,674 106,767 107,678 108,026 108,177 108,485 108,407

Self-employed workers, unincorporated......... 8,589 8,576 8,428 8,759 8,530 8,336 8,553 8,628 8,587

Unpaid family workers............................. 97 57 91 – – – – – –

PERSONS AT WORK PART TIME2

All industries

Part time for economic reasons3................... 9,205 8,271 8,428 8,869 8,787 9,270 8,790 8,469 8,098

Slack work or business conditions............... 6,347 5,499 5,650 5,954 5,815 5,900 5,839 5,578 5,305

Could only find part-time work.................... 2,499 2,492 2,408 2,501 2,707 2,844 2,538 2,496 2,419

Part time for noneconomic reasons4.............. 18,872 19,355 19,048 18,189 18,276 18,329 18,401 18,363 18,372

Nonagricultural industries

Part time for economic reasons3

................... 9,029 8,161 8,259 8,720 8,640 9,115 8,664 8,358 7,952

Slack work or business conditions............... 6,230 5,422 5,534 5,847 5,714 5,803 5,762 5,502 5,199

Could only find part-time work.................... 2,470 2,473 2,381 2,516 2,702 2,869 2,566 2,518 2,423

Part time for noneconomic reasons4

.............. 18,525 18,950 18,641 17,863 17,867 17,915 18,003 17,941 17,969

1 Includes self-employed workers whose businesses are incorporated.

2 Refers to those who worked 1 to 34 hours during the survey reference week and excludes employed persons who were absent from their jobs for the

entire week.

3 Refers to those who worked 1 to 34 hours during the reference week for an economic reason such as slack work or unfavorable business conditions,

inability to find full-time work, or seasonal declines in demand.

4 Refers to persons who usually work part time for noneconomic reasons such as childcare problems, family or personal obligations, school or training,

retirement or Social Security limits on earnings, and other reasons. This excludes persons who usually work full time but worked only 1 to 34 hours during

the reference week for reasons such as vacations, holidays, illness, and bad weather.

- Data not available.

NOTE: Detail for the seasonally adjusted data shown in this table will not necessarily add to totals because of the independent seasonal adjustment of

the various series. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-9. Selected employment indicators

[Numbers in thousands]

Characteristic

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

AGE AND SEX

Total, 16 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139,159 141,070 140,681 139,220 139,754 140,107 140,297 140,614 140,790

16 to 19 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,116 4,177 4,193 4,297 4,333 4,362 4,398 4,416 4,387

16 to 17 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,363 1,368 1,247 1,423 1,358 1,417 1,436 1,413 1,304

18 to 19 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,753 2,809 2,946 2,856 2,993 2,952 2,970 2,995 3,060

20 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135,044 136,893 136,488 134,923 135,420 135,745 135,899 136,198 136,403

20 to 24 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,611 13,225 13,041 12,745 12,945 13,090 13,346 13,200 13,195

25 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122,433 123,668 123,447 122,210 122,509 122,659 122,521 122,973 123,234

25 to 54 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94,156 94,322 94,069 93,959 93,606 93,506 93,356 93,708 93,882

25 to 34 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,384 30,992 30,800 30,350 30,659 30,607 30,562 30,743 30,771

35 to 44 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,528 30,423 30,350 30,446 30,056 30,092 30,094 30,222 30,271

45 to 54 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33,244 32,907 32,919 33,163 32,891 32,807 32,700 32,743 32,841

55 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28,276 29,346 29,378 28,251 28,903 29,152 29,165 29,264 29,352

Men, 16 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73,226 75,157 74,837 73,607 74,209 74,435 74,492 74,975 75,235

16 to 19 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,991 1,974 2,026 2,113 2,110 2,095 2,113 2,129 2,155

16 to 17 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635 594 576 697 637 672 662 654 635

18 to 19 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,356 1,380 1,450 1,403 1,492 1,425 1,449 1,465 1,501

20 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71,235 73,183 72,812 71,494 72,098 72,340 72,379 72,846 73,080

20 to 24 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,438 6,967 6,836 6,586 6,789 6,875 7,081 6,980 6,998

25 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64,798 66,216 65,976 64,906 65,347 65,489 65,331 65,853 66,084

25 to 54 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50,049 50,701 50,461 50,112 50,059 50,080 49,901 50,368 50,528

25 to 34 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,443 17,080 16,877 16,446 16,695 16,712 16,668 16,895 16,885

35 to 44 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,511 16,497 16,432 16,505 16,253 16,298 16,240 16,370 16,422

45 to 54 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,095 17,124 17,152 17,161 17,111 17,069 16,992 17,102 17,221

55 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,749 15,515 15,515 14,794 15,288 15,409 15,430 15,485 15,556

Women, 16 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65,933 65,913 65,843 65,613 65,545 65,672 65,805 65,639 65,555

16 to 19 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,125 2,203 2,167 2,184 2,223 2,266 2,286 2,287 2,232

16 to 17 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728 774 672 726 721 745 773 759 669

18 to 19 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,397 1,429 1,495 1,453 1,501 1,527 1,521 1,530 1,559

20 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63,809 63,710 63,676 63,429 63,322 63,406 63,520 63,352 63,323

20 to 24 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,174 6,258 6,205 6,159 6,157 6,215 6,265 6,220 6,198

25 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57,635 57,452 57,471 57,304 57,162 57,170 57,190 57,119 57,150

25 to 54 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44,108 43,622 43,608 43,847 43,547 43,427 43,455 43,340 43,354

25 to 34 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,941 13,912 13,923 13,904 13,964 13,895 13,894 13,848 13,886

35 to 44 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,017 13,926 13,918 13,941 13,804 13,794 13,854 13,852 13,849

45 to 54 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,150 15,783 15,767 16,002 15,779 15,737 15,708 15,641 15,620

55 years and over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,527 13,830 13,863 13,457 13,615 13,743 13,735 13,779 13,796

MARITAL STATUS

Married men, spouse present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,119 44,159 43,786 43,044 43,259 43,640 43,661 43,933 43,709

Married women, spouse present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34,850 34,705 34,516 34,520 33,947 34,091 34,225 34,442 34,177

Women who maintain families. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,878 8,723 8,807 – – – – – –

FULL- OR PART-TIME STATUS

Full-time workers1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111,207 113,138 113,050 111,873 112,406 112,479 112,841 113,212 113,765

Part-time workers2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27,953 27,932 27,630 27,331 27,416 27,640 27,463 27,378 27,040

MULTIPLE JOBHOLDERS

Total multiple jobholders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,884 7,083 7,030 6,884 6,943 6,970 6,903 7,004 7,013

Percent of total employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.9 5.0 5.0 4.9 5.0 5.0 4.9 5.0 5.0

SELF-EMPLOYMENT

Self-employed workers, incorporated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,263 5,060 5,199 – – – – – –

Self-employed workers, unincorporated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,309 9,400 9,252 9,524 9,378 9,179 9,417 9,478 9,461

1 Employed full-time workers are persons who usually work 35 hours or more per week.

2 Employed part-time workers are persons who usually work less than 35 hours per week.

- Data not available.

NOTE: Detail for the seasonally adjusted data shown in this table will not necessarily add to totals because of the independent seasonal adjustment of the various series. Updated

population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-10. Selected unemployment indicators, seasonally adjusted

Characteristic

Number of

unemployed persons

(in thousands)

Unemployment rates

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

AGE AND SEX

Total, 16 years and over............................. 14,393 13,323 13,097 9.4 9.1 9.0 8.9 8.7 8.5

16 to 19 years...................................... 1,451 1,370 1,316 25.2 25.3 24.5 24.0 23.7 23.1

16 to 17 years.................................... 534 428 501 27.3 28.7 26.3 25.2 23.3 27.8

18 to 19 years.................................... 932 917 826 24.6 24.4 23.2 23.2 23.4 21.3

20 years and over.................................. 12,943 11,953 11,781 8.8 8.4 8.4 8.3 8.1 8.0

20 to 24 years.................................... 2,287 2,190 2,221 15.2 14.7 14.6 13.9 14.2 14.4

25 years and over............................... 10,656 9,740 9,593 8.0 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.3 7.2

25 to 54 years................................. 8,600 7,719 7,681 8.4 8.1 8.1 8.0 7.6 7.6

25 to 34 years.............................. 3,375 3,108 3,191 10.0 9.5 9.7 9.7 9.2 9.4

35 to 44 years.............................. 2,562 2,268 2,220 7.8 7.6 7.4 7.2 7.0 6.8

45 to 54 years.............................. 2,663 2,343 2,271 7.4 7.1 7.2 7.1 6.7 6.5

55 years and over............................. 2,089 1,991 1,929 6.9 6.6 6.7 7.0 6.4 6.2

Men, 16 years and over.............................. 8,202 7,366 7,138 10.0 9.5 9.4 9.4 8.9 8.7

16 to 19 years...................................... 813 772 782 27.8 28.1 27.8 27.3 26.6 26.6

16 to 17 years.................................... 278 239 278 28.5 28.2 27.6 27.4 26.7 30.5

18 to 19 years.................................... 537 533 504 27.7 28.9 27.1 27.4 26.7 25.1

20 years and over.................................. 7,390 6,594 6,356 9.4 8.8 8.7 8.7 8.3 8.0

20 to 24 years.................................... 1,329 1,292 1,262 16.8 16.3 15.7 14.6 15.6 15.3

25 years and over............................... 6,046 5,300 5,112 8.5 8.1 8.0 8.1 7.4 7.2

25 to 54 years................................. 4,882 4,187 4,099 8.9 8.4 8.3 8.4 7.7 7.5

25 to 34 years.............................. 1,932 1,705 1,764 10.5 9.8 9.8 10.1 9.2 9.5

35 to 44 years.............................. 1,418 1,237 1,179 7.9 8.0 7.6 7.4 7.0 6.7

45 to 54 years.............................. 1,533 1,245 1,155 8.2 7.4 7.5 7.5 6.8 6.3

55 years and over............................. 1,164 1,113 1,013 7.3 6.9 6.9 7.2 6.7 6.1

Women, 16 years and over.......................... 6,191 5,957 5,959 8.6 8.5 8.6 8.4 8.3 8.3

16 to 19 years...................................... 638 598 535 22.6 22.4 21.1 20.6 20.7 19.3

16 to 17 years.................................... 256 190 223 26.1 29.2 25.1 23.2 20.0 25.0

18 to 19 years.................................... 395 384 322 21.4 19.3 19.0 18.6 20.1 17.1

20 years and over.................................. 5,553 5,359 5,425 8.1 7.9 8.1 7.9 7.8 7.9

20 to 24 years.................................... 958 898 959 13.5 12.8 13.4 13.1 12.6 13.4

25 years and over............................... 4,610 4,440 4,481 7.4 7.3 7.5 7.3 7.2 7.3

25 to 54 years................................. 3,717 3,532 3,583 7.8 7.7 7.8 7.5 7.5 7.6

25 to 34 years.............................. 1,444 1,403 1,427 9.4 9.1 9.5 9.2 9.2 9.3

35 to 44 years.............................. 1,144 1,031 1,040 7.6 7.2 7.3 6.8 6.9 7.0

45 to 54 years.............................. 1,130 1,098 1,115 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.6 6.6 6.7

55 years and over1

........................... 830 847 832 5.8 7.1 6.6 6.5 5.8 5.7

MARITAL STATUS

Married men, spouse present....................... 2,973 2,461 2,328 6.5 5.8 5.8 5.8 5.3 5.1

Married women, spouse present.................... 2,063 1,937 1,950 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.7 5.3 5.4

Women who maintain families1

.................... 1,207 1,230 1,308 12.0 11.9 12.4 12.3 12.4 12.9

FULL- OR PART-TIME STATUS

Full-time workers2.................................... 12,639 11,520 11,286 10.2 9.7 9.8 9.5 9.2 9.0

Part-time workers3................................... 1,774 1,754 1,825 6.1 6.5 6.0 6.4 6.0 6.3

1 Not seasonally adjusted.

2 Full-time workers are unemployed persons who have expressed a desire to work full time (35 hours or more per week) or are on layoff from full-time jobs.

3 Part-time workers are unemployed persons who have expressed a desire to work part time (less than 35 hours per week) or are on layoff from part-time

jobs.

NOTE: Detail for the seasonally adjusted data shown in this table will not necessarily add to totals because of the independent seasonal adjustment of

the various series. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-11. Unemployed persons by reason for unemployment

[Numbers in thousands]

Reason

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED

Job losers and persons who completed

temporary jobs...................................... 8,995 7,201 7,691 8,877 8,120 8,028 7,924 7,599 7,602

On temporary layoff................................ 1,547 955 1,385 1,366 1,237 1,195 1,226 1,181 1,216

Not on temporary layoff............................ 7,448 6,246 6,306 7,511 6,883 6,833 6,699 6,418 6,386

Permanent job losers............................ 5,917 4,878 5,000 5,990 5,476 5,416 5,308 5,033 5,089

Persons who completed temporary jobs...... 1,530 1,367 1,306 1,521 1,407 1,417 1,391 1,385 1,296

Job leavers............................................. 861 1,000 894 920 973 972 1,068 1,005 953

Reentrants............................................. 3,031 3,248 3,018 3,406 3,519 3,484 3,387 3,355 3,399

New entrants.......................................... 1,110 1,164 1,090 1,306 1,249 1,323 1,291 1,276 1,280

PERCENT DISTRIBUTION

Job losers and persons who completed

temporary jobs...................................... 64.3 57.1 60.6 61.2 58.6 58.1 58.0 57.4 57.4

On temporary layoff................................ 11.1 7.6 10.9 9.4 8.9 8.7 9.0 8.9 9.2

Not on temporary layoff............................ 53.2 49.5 49.7 51.8 49.7 49.5 49.0 48.5 48.3

Job leavers............................................. 6.2 7.9 7.0 6.3 7.0 7.0 7.8 7.6 7.2

Reentrants............................................. 21.7 25.8 23.8 23.5 25.4 25.2 24.8 25.3 25.7

New entrants.......................................... 7.9 9.2 8.6 9.0 9.0 9.6 9.4 9.6 9.7

UNEMPLOYED AS A PERCENT OF THE

CIVILIAN LABOR FORCE

Job losers and persons who completed

temporary jobs...................................... 5.9 4.7 5.0 5.8 5.3 5.2 5.1 4.9 4.9

Job leavers............................................. 0.6 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.6

Reentrants............................................. 2.0 2.1 2.0 2.2 2.3 2.3 2.2 2.2 2.2

New entrants.......................................... 0.7 0.8 0.7 0.9 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.8

NOTE: Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-12. Unemployed persons by duration of unemployment

[Numbers in thousands]

Duration

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED

Less than 5 weeks.................................... 2,681 2,297 2,640 2,701 2,734 2,743 2,676 2,510 2,669

5 to 14 weeks......................................... 3,043 2,766 2,735 3,167 3,019 2,902 3,285 2,896 2,858

15 weeks and over.................................... 8,273 7,551 7,317 8,613 8,218 8,227 7,869 7,766 7,628

15 to 26 weeks..................................... 2,073 1,933 1,906 2,191 2,203 2,029 2,029 2,087 2,039

27 weeks and over................................. 6,200 5,618 5,411 6,421 6,015 6,197 5,839 5,680 5,588

Average (mean) duration, in weeks1

.............. 34.0 41.1 39.7 34.9 40.3 40.4 39.2 40.9 40.8

Median duration, in weeks........................... 22.3 21.8 21.0 22.3 21.7 21.8 20.8 21.5 21.0

PERCENT DISTRIBUTION

Less than 5 weeks.................................... 19.2 18.2 20.8 18.7 19.6 19.8 19.4 19.1 20.3

5 to 14 weeks......................................... 21.7 21.9 21.5 21.9 21.6 20.9 23.8 22.0 21.7

15 weeks and over.................................... 59.1 59.9 57.7 59.5 58.8 59.3 56.9 59.0 58.0

15 to 26 weeks..................................... 14.8 15.3 15.0 15.1 15.8 14.6 14.7 15.8 15.5

27 weeks and over................................. 44.3 44.5 42.6 44.3 43.1 44.7 42.2 43.1 42.5

1 Beginning in January 2011, this series reflects a change to the collection of data on unemployment duration. For more information, see

www.bls.gov/cps/duration.htm.

NOTE: Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-13. Employed and unemployed persons by occupation, not seasonally adjusted

[Numbers in thousands]

Occupation

Employed Unemployed Unemployment

rates

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Total, 16 years and over1

............................................. 139,159 140,681 13,997 12,692 9.1 8.3

Management, professional, and related occupations............ 51,704 52,808 2,468 2,303 4.6 4.2

Management, business, and financial operations

occupations...................................................... 20,393 22,039 1,243 1,019 5.7 4.4

Professional and related occupations........................... 31,310 30,769 1,225 1,284 3.8 4.0

Service occupations.................................................. 24,717 24,678 2,696 2,542 9.8 9.3

Sales and office occupations....................................... 33,407 33,310 3,023 2,844 8.3 7.9

Sales and related occupations................................... 15,521 15,826 1,407 1,325 8.3 7.7

Office and administrative support occupations................. 17,885 17,484 1,616 1,518 8.3 8.0

Natural resources, construction, and maintenance

occupations......................................................... 12,666 13,104 2,407 1,924 16.0 12.8

Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations..................... 925 915 268 203 22.5 18.2

Construction and extraction occupations....................... 6,849 7,220 1,785 1,417 20.7 16.4

Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations............. 4,892 4,970 354 304 6.7 5.8

Production, transportation, and material moving

occupations......................................................... 16,666 16,781 2,245 1,942 11.9 10.4

Production occupations........................................... 8,339 8,441 1,109 1,008 11.7 10.7

Transportation and material moving occupations.............. 8,327 8,340 1,137 933 12.0 10.1

1 Persons with no previous work experience and persons whose last job was in the U.S. Armed Forces are included in the unemployed total.

NOTE: Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data. Effective with January 2011 data, occupations reflect the

introduction of the 2010 Census occupational classification system into the Current Population Survey, or household survey. This classification system is

derived from the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC). No historical data have been revised. Data for 2011 are not strictly comparable with

earlier years.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-14. Unemployed persons by industry and class of worker, not seasonally adjusted

Industry and class of worker

Number of

unemployed

persons

(in thousands)

Unemployment

rates

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Total, 16 years and over1................................................................ 13,997 12,692 9.1 8.3

Nonagricultural private wage and salary workers................................... 11,008 9,956 9.3 8.3

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction..................................... 83 59 10.8 6.9

Construction........................................................................... 1,749 1,327 20.7 16.0

Manufacturing......................................................................... 1,551 1,217 10.0 7.9

Durable goods...................................................................... 999 783 10.4 8.0

Nondurable goods................................................................. 551 434 9.4 7.6

Wholesale and retail trade.......................................................... 1,698 1,701 8.2 8.2

Transportation and utilities.......................................................... 428 399 7.4 7.0

Information............................................................................ 244 235 8.1 7.7

Financial activities.................................................................... 568 514 6.4 5.6

Professional and business services................................................ 1,477 1,403 10.2 9.3

Education and health services...................................................... 1,139 1,201 5.2 5.5

Leisure and hospitality............................................................... 1,580 1,395 12.0 10.8

Other services........................................................................ 491 505 7.9 8.0

Agriculture and related private wage and salary workers.......................... 278 215 18.1 14.3

Government workers.................................................................... 950 892 4.4 4.1

Self-employed workers, unincorporated, and unpaid family workers............. 650 539 6.5 5.5

1 Persons with no previous work experience and persons whose last job was in the U.S. Armed Forces are included in the unemployed total.

NOTE: Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization

[Percent]

Measure

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Dec.

2010

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Aug.

2011

Sept.

2011

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011

Dec.

2011

U-1 Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as

a percent of the civilian labor force.............. 5.4 4.9 4.8 5.6 5.3 5.3 5.1 5.0 5.0

U-2 Job losers and persons who completed

temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian

labor force........................................... 5.9 4.7 5.0 5.8 5.3 5.2 5.1 4.9 4.9

U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the

civilian labor force (official unemployment

rate).................................................. 9.1 8.2 8.3 9.4 9.1 9.0 8.9 8.7 8.5

U-4 Total unemployed plus discouraged workers,

as a percent of the civilian labor force plus

discouraged workers............................... 9.9 8.9 8.8 10.1 9.6 9.6 9.5 9.3 9.1

U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers,

plus all other persons marginally attached to

the labor force, as a percent of the civilian

labor force plus all persons marginally attached

to the labor force................................... 10.7 9.7 9.8 10.9 10.6 10.5 10.4 10.2 10.0

U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons

marginally attached to the labor force, plus

total employed part time for economic reasons,

as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all

persons marginally attached to the labor

force.................................................. 16.6 15.0 15.2 16.6 16.2 16.4 16.0 15.6 15.2

NOTE: Persons marginally attached to the labor force are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are

available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a

job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for

full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-16. Persons not in the labor force and multiple jobholders by sex, not seasonally adjusted

[Numbers in thousands]

Category

Total Men Women

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

Dec.

2010

Dec.

2011

NOT IN THE LABOR FORCE

Total not in the labor force............................................. 85,733 87,212 34,228 34,813 51,505 52,398

Persons who currently want a job.................................. 6,212 6,135 2,936 2,911 3,276 3,224

Marginally attached to the labor force1........................ 2,609 2,540 1,326 1,304 1,283 1,237

Discouraged workers2

......................................... 1,318 945 829 565 489 380

Other persons marginally attached to the labor force3. . .. 1,291 1,595 497 738 794 857

MULTIPLE JOBHOLDERS

Total multiple jobholders4............................................. 6,884 7,030 3,259 3,523 3,625 3,506

Percent of total employed........................................... 4.9 5.0 4.5 4.7 5.5 5.3

Primary job full time, secondary job part time.................... 3,514 3,504 1,889 1,981 1,624 1,523

Primary and secondary jobs both part time....................... 1,916 1,990 596 689 1,320 1,301

Primary and secondary jobs both full time........................ 251 239 156 125 95 114

Hours vary on primary or secondary job.......................... 1,164 1,248 597 711 567 537

1 Data refer to persons who want a job, have searched for work during the prior 12 months, and were available to take a job during the reference week,

but had not looked for work in the past 4 weeks.

2 Includes those who did not actively look for work in the prior 4 weeks for reasons such as thinks no work available, could not find work, lacks schooling

or training, employer thinks too young or old, and other types of discrimination.

3 Includes those who did not actively look for work in the prior 4 weeks for such reasons as school or family responsibilities, ill health, and transportation

problems, as well as a number for whom reason for nonparticipation was not determined.

4 Includes a small number of persons who work part time on their primary job and full time on their secondary job(s), not shown separately.

NOTE: Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail

[In thousands]

Industry

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Change

from:

Nov.2011 -

Dec.2011p

Total nonfarm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131,050 132,628 132,940 132,721 130,260 131,600 131,700 131,900 200

Total private. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108,464 110,262 110,476 110,396 108,008 109,596 109,716 109,928 212

Goods-producing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,714 18,430 18,287 18,072 17,797 18,117 18,111 18,159 48

Mining and logging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 825 825 824 734 812 817 825 8

Logging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.9 48.2 49.1 48.8 47.2 46.1 47.9 48.5 0.6

Mining. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686.1 776.9 775.4 774.8 686.7 766.0 769.0 776.0 7.0

Oil and gas extraction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161.4 182.7 184.1 186.4 161.6 183.1 184.2 186.8 2.6

Mining, except oil and gas1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201.7 219.8 216.0 211.0 205.6 214.7 213.6 215.0 1.4

Coal mining. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.8 86.6 85.9 86.0 83.2 86.5 85.7 85.7 0.0

Support activities for mining. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323.0 374.4 375.3 377.4 319.5 368.2 371.2 374.2 3.0

Construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,387 5,779 5,659 5,436 5,498 5,539 5,527 5,544 17

Construction of buildings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,215.1 1,272.7 1,251.4 1,224.0 1,222.1 1,233.3 1,229.0 1,228.8 -0.2

Residential building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558.6 581.4 573.2 563.3 563.0 563.8 564.1 566.6 2.5

Nonresidential building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656.5 691.3 678.2 660.7 659.1 669.5 664.9 662.2 -2.7

Heavy and civil engineering construction. . . . . . . 792.6 916.5 881.0 803.8 834.2 850.7 845.8 845.5 -0.3

Specialty trade contractors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,379.1 3,589.9 3,526.6 3,408.1 3,441.2 3,455.4 3,452.3 3,469.6 17.3

Residential specialty trade contractors. . . . . . . 1,410.1 1,519.8 1,490.2 1,427.0 1,441.9 1,457.5 1,461.2 1,458.3 -2.9

Nonresidential specialty trade contractors. . . . 1,969.0 2,070.1 2,036.4 1,981.1 1,999.3 1,997.9 1,991.1 2,011.3 20.2

Manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,594 11,826 11,803 11,812 11,565 11,766 11,767 11,790 23

Durable goods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,146 7,353 7,362 7,382 7,126 7,329 7,342 7,365 23

Wood products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335.7 333.4 332.4 331.0 337.4 331.9 331.5 332.4 0.9

Nonmetallic mineral products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362.7 376.4 372.8 363.4 367.5 368.3 367.5 367.8 0.3

Primary metals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368.8 392.8 395.2 394.5 368.2 391.5 394.0 393.9 -0.1

Fabricated metal products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,316.1 1,370.0 1,373.0 1,376.5 1,312.5 1,362.4 1,370.5 1,376.5 6.0

Machinery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,013.6 1,062.0 1,066.0 1,073.2 1,010.2 1,060.6 1,064.5 1,069.8 5.3

Computer and electronic products1

. . . . . . . . . . 1,114.2 1,128.0 1,124.9 1,127.5 1,111.1 1,128.5 1,124.0 1,124.2 0.2

Computer and peripheral equipment. . . . . . . 166.4 173.7 174.6 175.3 166.1 174.0 173.8 174.6 0.8

Communication equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119.5 115.2 113.7 114.2 119.0 114.9 114.2 114.1 -0.1

Semiconductors and electronic

components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376.6 389.1 388.2 388.5 375.5 389.0 387.9 387.4 -0.5

Electronic instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406.8 401.8 400.7 401.6 406.2 402.4 400.7 400.7 0.0

Electrical equipment and appliances. . . . . . . . . 368.5 371.4 371.7 373.7 367.7 371.4 371.5 372.9 1.4

Transportation equipment1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,340.5 1,393.2 1,404.6 1,419.5 1,329.8 1,391.6 1,400.0 1,408.6 8.6

Motor vehicles and parts2

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683.5 716.3 721.6 733.3 674.2 714.1 717.6 724.1 6.5

Furniture and related products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349.4 349.5 346.5 345.7 350.3 348.6 347.8 346.4 -1.4

Miscellaneous manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576.5 576.4 574.7 576.6 571.2 574.4 570.8 572.5 1.7

Nondurable goods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,448 4,473 4,441 4,430 4,439 4,437 4,425 4,425 0

Food manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,453.7 1,466.1 1,447.9 1,445.9 1,444.9 1,442.7 1,438.8 1,439.1 0.3

Beverages and tobacco products. . . . . . . . . . . . 180.0 192.1 189.4 185.4 182.4 187.4 188.2 187.4 -0.8

Textile mills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119.5 120.3 119.4 120.5 119.8 120.3 119.3 120.8 1.5

Textile product mills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116.8 113.7 113.4 111.7 116.3 113.0 112.8 111.9 -0.9

Apparel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156.6 156.5 153.7 153.2 157.6 155.9 154.4 153.9 -0.5

Leather and allied products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.5 30.4 30.7 30.8 28.5 30.1 30.5 30.6 0.1

Paper and paper products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397.6 399.0 399.0 401.4 396.8 398.9 398.5 400.2 1.7

Printing and related support activities. . . . . . . . 479.2 463.6 460.7 462.1 476.2 461.8 458.6 460.0 1.4

Petroleum and coal products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110.8 116.7 114.3 107.2 113.0 112.6 112.4 110.1 -2.3

Chemicals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780.5 783.1 782.8 785.3 777.5 784.2 781.9 782.9 1.0

Plastics and rubber products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624.3 631.7 629.8 626.3 626.1 630.1 629.5 628.1 -1.4

Private service-providing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90,750 91,832 92,189 92,324 90,211 91,479 91,605 91,769 164

Trade, transportation, and utilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25,322 25,060 25,487 25,745 24,746 25,010 25,052 25,142 90

Wholesale trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,495.5 5,573.6 5,573.0 5,576.8 5,479.5 5,553.6 5,552.3 5,563.9 11.6

Durable goods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,742.1 2,785.4 2,782.5 2,793.2 2,736.0 2,779.0 2,777.2 2,789.1 11.9

Nondurable goods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,941.3 1,965.5 1,965.4 1,958.1 1,935.5 1,954.8 1,953.2 1,952.6 -0.6

Electronic markets and agents and brokers.. . 812.1 822.7 825.1 825.5 808.0 819.8 821.9 822.2 0.3

Retail trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,939.3 14,607.9 15,017.7 15,199.3 14,447.2 14,620.2 14,659.0 14,686.9 27.9

Motor vehicle and parts dealers1

. . . . . . . . . . . . 1,638.2 1,692.5 1,692.8 1,689.2 1,648.1 1,686.7 1,693.3 1,697.7 4.4

Automobile dealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,019.3 1,053.1 1,054.5 1,054.4 1,021.4 1,050.1 1,053.7 1,056.2 2.5

Furniture and home furnishings stores. . . . . . . 456.9 447.2 456.1 460.3 435.8 439.6 439.7 439.3 -0.4

See footnotes at end of table.
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail

— Continued

[In thousands]

Industry

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Change

from:

Nov.2011 -

Dec.2011p

Retail trade - Continued

Electronics and appliance stores. . . . . . . . . . . . . 529.0 484.9 506.7 506.5 503.2 483.6 485.7 482.9 -2.8

Building material and garden supply stores.. . 1,082.5 1,102.7 1,099.4 1,093.0 1,112.0 1,121.2 1,124.3 1,125.1 0.8

Food and beverage stores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,840.7 2,850.9 2,868.3 2,883.6 2,814.1 2,847.5 2,848.0 2,856.2 8.2

Health and personal care stores. . . . . . . . . . . . . 988.4 978.0 987.4 991.1 970.9 978.8 977.5 975.2 -2.3

Gasoline stations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811.3 821.1 824.0 821.2 816.1 820.6 824.7 825.4 0.7

Clothing and clothing accessories stores. . . . . 1,533.8 1,447.3 1,565.7 1,624.7 1,405.4 1,458.1 1,473.1 1,484.2 11.1

Sporting goods, hobby, book, and music

stores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657.9 589.4 622.2 627.8 601.5 588.8 586.5 576.3 -10.2

General merchandise stores1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,181.8 2,989.8 3,169.6 3,260.1 2,972.8 3,010.3 3,021.6 3,034.6 13.0

Department stores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,651.2 1,491.6 1,624.5 1,690.3 1,484.2 1,508.9 1,514.3 1,518.0 3.7

Miscellaneous store retailers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774.3 772.6 779.3 788.2 753.9 765.7 765.1 768.7 3.6

Nonstore retailers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444.5 431.5 446.2 453.6 413.4 419.3 419.5 421.3 1.8

Transportation and warehousing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,338.1 4,325.0 4,341.6 4,414.3 4,268.4 4,282.1 4,285.2 4,335.4 50.2

Air transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467.0 474.8 469.6 471.1 467.7 474.9 471.9 472.7 0.8

Rail transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218.8 227.2 227.5 226.9 218.5 226.6 226.5 227.0 0.5

Water transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.4 65.5 64.1 65.7 64.7 65.0 64.8 65.5 0.7

Truck transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,254.7 1,305.5 1,304.6 1,294.5 1,255.9 1,286.6 1,290.9 1,296.0 5.1

Transit and ground passenger

transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461.3 460.5 457.2 454.3 445.2 442.0 439.9 439.5 -0.4

Pipeline transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.3 43.4 43.6 44.6 42.3 43.5 43.6 44.4 0.8

Scenic and sightseeing transportation. . . . . . . . 22.1 30.7 22.8 20.8 26.7 29.0 26.7 26.3 -0.4

Support activities for transportation. . . . . . . . . . . 544.3 564.4 565.3 564.9 542.0 560.6 563.3 562.6 -0.7

Couriers and messengers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623.7 515.6 542.8 628.7 573.6 522.9 525.6 567.8 42.2

Warehousing and storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639.5 637.4 644.1 642.8 631.8 631.0 632.0 633.6 1.6

Utilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549.5 553.6 554.2 554.7 551.2 554.1 555.0 556.2 1.2

Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,706 2,653 2,663 2,672 2,694 2,659 2,652 2,658 6

Publishing industries, except Internet. . . . . . . . . . . 759.9 755.6 754.5 756.4 756.9 754.7 751.7 753.0 1.3

Motion picture and sound recording

industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372.8 358.3 368.0 374.1 372.6 363.9 365.6 370.8 5.2

Broadcasting, except Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297.0 295.1 293.6 294.2 295.7 293.7 291.3 292.7 1.4

Telecommunications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888.4 842.1 842.6 842.6 881.8 843.6 840.2 837.2 -3.0

Data processing, hosting and related

services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242.4 238.3 239.6 240.0 241.0 238.9 239.1 238.9 -0.2

Other information services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145.8 163.9 164.2 164.5 145.7 163.9 164.3 165.3 1.0

Financial activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,625 7,618 7,618 7,633 7,617 7,617 7,622 7,624 2

Finance and insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,692.2 5,664.6 5,676.2 5,686.8 5,681.5 5,668.9 5,672.5 5,675.0 2.5

Monetary authorities - central bank. . . . . . . . . . . 21.2 21.9 21.9 21.8 21.2 21.9 21.9 21.9 0.0

Credit intermediation and related

activities1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,553.7 2,540.1 2,549.9 2,558.8 2,549.0 2,544.8 2,549.3 2,552.1 2.8

Depository credit intermediation1

. . . . . . . . . . 1,744.8 1,753.1 1,756.2 1,762.7 1,741.9 1,757.1 1,758.1 1,760.0 1.9

Commercial banking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,317.4 1,322.6 1,324.6 1,329.5 1,316.4 1,325.0 1,326.9 1,328.6 1.7

Securities, commodity contracts,

investments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804.3 807.3 807.1 802.9 803.1 806.7 806.3 802.4 -3.9

Insurance carriers and related activities. . . . . . 2,226.7 2,209.4 2,212.3 2,218.0 2,221.7 2,209.9 2,209.8 2,213.1 3.3

Funds, trusts, and other financial vehicles. . . 86.3 85.9 85.0 85.3 86.5 85.6 85.2 85.5 0.3

Real estate and rental and leasing. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,932.9 1,953.1 1,941.6 1,946.0 1,935.3 1,947.9 1,949.9 1,948.6 -1.3

Real estate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,396.5 1,408.3 1,399.8 1,403.1 1,395.0 1,402.9 1,403.3 1,402.3 -1.0

Rental and leasing services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511.0 518.8 515.8 516.8 515.0 519.0 520.6 520.3 -0.3

Lessors of nonfinancial intangible assets. . . . . 25.4 26.0 26.0 26.1 25.3 26.0 26.0 26.0 0.0

Professional and business services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,034 17,500 17,513 17,480 16,902 17,323 17,342 17,354 12

Professional and technical services1

. . . . . . . . . . . 7,523.1 7,666.9 7,705.1 7,761.2 7,469.4 7,697.8 7,707.1 7,715.6 8.5

Legal services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,118.3 1,113.2 1,114.6 1,115.2 1,113.7 1,112.4 1,112.8 1,111.0 -1.8

Accounting and bookkeeping services. . . . . . . 894.7 865.4 892.5 951.0 881.8 936.8 940.1 943.2 3.1

Architectural and engineering services. . . . . . . 1,281.4 1,313.1 1,310.9 1,306.6 1,278.5 1,303.9 1,304.6 1,305.1 0.5

Computer systems design and related

services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,471.7 1,528.0 1,534.5 1,530.4 1,464.9 1,520.4 1,523.9 1,525.1 1.2

Management and technical consulting

services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,020.6 1,070.8 1,077.0 1,082.9 1,008.1 1,062.0 1,064.7 1,069.0 4.3

Management of companies and enterprises. . . . 1,877.3 1,895.4 1,899.2 1,905.4 1,873.3 1,894.7 1,897.1 1,899.2 2.1

Administrative and waste services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,633.4 7,937.8 7,908.8 7,813.5 7,559.6 7,730.7 7,737.4 7,739.1 1.7

See footnotes at end of table.
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail

— Continued

[In thousands]

Industry

Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Change

from:

Nov.2011 -

Dec.2011p

Administrative and waste services - Continued

Administrative and support services1

. . . . . . . . 7,275.2 7,566.9 7,542.2 7,448.6 7,199.8 7,363.0 7,371.7 7,372.1 0.4

Employment services1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,974.6 3,096.7 3,105.9 3,088.2 2,843.6 2,960.9 2,968.3 2,956.7 -11.6

Temporary help services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,314.3 2,421.9 2,434.0 2,412.2 2,207.2 2,300.0 2,311.2 2,303.7 -7.5

Business support services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824.1 810.5 822.9 831.5 805.2 804.0 807.3 811.2 3.9

Services to buildings and dwellings. . . . . . . . 1,689.0 1,823.7 1,788.6 1,711.1 1,765.0 1,776.9 1,778.8 1,783.7 4.9

Waste management and remediation

services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358.2 370.9 366.6 364.9 359.8 367.7 365.7 367.0 1.3

Education and health services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19,921 20,299 20,398 20,346 19,760 20,125 20,158 20,187 29

Educational services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,291.9 3,391.5 3,443.0 3,367.3 3,179.5 3,243.4 3,255.7 3,255.8 0.1

Health care and social assistance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,629.5 16,907.6 16,954.9 16,978.6 16,580.6 16,882.0 16,902.2 16,930.9 28.7

Health care3

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,951.4 14,212.8 14,244.5 14,264.7 13,922.4 14,198.5 14,214.5 14,237.1 22.6

Ambulatory health care services1. . . . . . . . . 6,065.8 6,231.4 6,244.8 6,252.7 6,051.3 6,219.2 6,227.0 6,238.3 11.3

Offices of physicians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,343.1 2,396.6 2,403.2 2,411.0 2,330.0 2,391.9 2,395.7 2,397.6 1.9

Outpatient care centers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613.1 631.7 635.6 637.9 611.4 630.7 633.9 635.5 1.6

Home health care services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,103.4 1,143.7 1,143.9 1,141.2 1,102.3 1,140.3 1,139.1 1,141.1 2.0

Hospitals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,715.1 4,781.2 4,793.5 4,803.8 4,708.0 4,780.1 4,787.3 4,797.1 9.8

Nursing and residential care facilities1

. . . . 3,170.5 3,200.2 3,206.2 3,208.2 3,163.1 3,199.2 3,200.2 3,201.7 1.5

Nursing care facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,680.2 1,682.6 1,684.7 1,682.4 1,674.8 1,682.5 1,679.4 1,678.9 -0.5

Social assistance1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,678.1 2,694.8 2,710.4 2,713.9 2,658.2 2,683.5 2,687.7 2,693.8 6.1

Child day care services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870.2 861.6 865.5 861.4 856.6 851.5 849.6 849.4 -0.2

Leisure and hospitality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,749 13,252 13,065 13,008 13,074 13,291 13,321 13,342 21

Arts, entertainment, and recreation. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,735.7 1,860.9 1,746.4 1,727.9 1,896.4 1,895.2 1,894.1 1,891.0 -3.1

Performing arts and spectator sports. . . . . . . . . 393.5 413.0 393.4 387.9 410.5 405.9 408.0 406.0 -2.0

Museums, historical sites, zoos, and parks. . . 119.8 132.3 128.0 125.9 127.2 132.4 133.0 133.7 0.7

Amusements, gambling, and recreation. . . . . . 1,222.4 1,315.6 1,225.0 1,214.1 1,358.7 1,356.9 1,353.1 1,351.3 -1.8

Accommodation and food services. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,012.9 11,391.5 11,318.9 11,280.2 11,177.4 11,395.8 11,426.4 11,451.1 24.7

Accommodation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,701.9 1,801.0 1,748.9 1,738.5 1,763.3 1,811.7 1,805.9 1,806.6 0.7

Food services and drinking places. . . . . . . . . . . 9,311.0 9,590.5 9,570.0 9,541.7 9,414.1 9,584.1 9,620.5 9,644.5 24.0

Other services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,393 5,450 5,445 5,440 5,418 5,454 5,458 5,462 4

Repair and maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,134.4 1,157.5 1,155.7 1,154.1 1,142.3 1,157.2 1,159.6 1,160.3 0.7

Personal and laundry services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,268.4 1,282.4 1,279.3 1,276.4 1,271.6 1,285.4 1,282.3 1,281.1 -1.2

Membership associations and organizations. . . . 2,990.6 3,010.3 3,010.1 3,009.3 3,004.1 3,011.4 3,016.2 3,020.4 4.2

Government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22,586 22,366 22,464 22,325 22,252 22,004 21,984 21,972 -12

Federal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,846.0 2,820.0 2,805.0 2,812.0 2,853.0 2,819.0 2,815.0 2,817.0 2.0

Federal, except U.S. Postal Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,200.0 2,197.6 2,193.3 2,197.0 2,210.0 2,201.0 2,202.1 2,204.7 2.6

U.S. Postal Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646.2 622.0 611.9 615.4 643.4 617.6 612.9 612.1 -0.8

State government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,250.0 5,230.0 5,256.0 5,193.0 5,140.0 5,079.0 5,077.0 5,077.0 0.0

State government education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,513.6 2,563.2 2,591.9 2,529.1 2,392.6 2,402.9 2,404.0 2,407.2 3.2

State government, excluding education. . . . . . . . . . . 2,736.1 2,666.5 2,663.9 2,664.3 2,747.3 2,676.1 2,672.6 2,669.7 -2.9

Local government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,490.0 14,316.0 14,403.0 14,320.0 14,259.0 14,106.0 14,092.0 14,078.0 -14.0

Local government education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,266.1 8,103.9 8,204.7 8,159.1 7,951.8 7,857.5 7,848.1 7,838.7 -9.4

Local government, excluding education. . . . . . . . . . . 6,223.5 6,211.8 6,198.6 6,160.8 6,307.3 6,248.3 6,243.7 6,239.6 -4.1

1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.

2 Includes motor vehicles, motor vehicle bodies and trailers, and motor vehicle parts.

3 Includes ambulatory health care services, hospitals, and nursing and residential care facilities.

p Preliminary
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-2. Average weekly hours and overtime of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry

sector, seasonally adjusted

Industry Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

AVERAGE WEEKLY HOURS

Total private.............................................................................. 34.2 34.4 34.3 34.4

Goods-producing..................................................................... 39.7 40.1 40.0 40.1

Mining and logging................................................................ 43.5 45.1 44.5 44.6

Construction........................................................................ 38.0 38.3 38.4 38.7

Manufacturing...................................................................... 40.3 40.6 40.4 40.5

Durable goods................................................................... 40.6 40.9 40.7 40.9

Nondurable goods............................................................... 39.9 40.0 39.8 39.8

Private service-providing............................................................ 33.1 33.3 33.2 33.3

Trade, transportation, and utilities............................................... 34.5 34.6 34.4 34.6

Wholesale trade................................................................. 38.3 38.8 38.7 38.7

Retail trade....................................................................... 31.5 31.5 31.4 31.7

Transportation and warehousing.............................................. 38.7 38.5 38.4 38.4

Utilities............................................................................ 41.3 42.2 41.7 41.1

Information.......................................................................... 36.4 36.8 36.7 36.5

Financial activities................................................................. 37.0 37.3 37.4 37.3

Professional and business services............................................. 35.6 35.8 35.7 35.8

Education and health services................................................... 32.7 32.7 32.7 32.8

Leisure and hospitality............................................................ 25.8 26.0 26.1 26.1

Other services...................................................................... 31.6 31.6 31.5 31.6

AVERAGE OVERTIME HOURS

Manufacturing............................................................................ 3.2 3.2 3.3 3.2

Durable goods........................................................................ 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.2

Nondurable goods.................................................................... 3.3 3.2 3.2 3.2

p Preliminary
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-3. Average hourly and weekly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry

sector, seasonally adjusted

Industry

Average hourly earnings Average weekly earnings

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Total private................................................. $22.77 $23.20 $23.20 $23.24 $ 778.73 $ 798.08 $ 795.76 $ 799.46

Goods-producing........................................ 24.20 24.58 24.52 24.64 960.74 985.66 980.80 988.06

Mining and logging................................... 27.59 28.31 28.38 28.62 1,200.17 1,276.78 1,262.91 1,276.45

Construction........................................... 25.33 25.47 25.48 25.53 962.54 975.50 978.43 988.01

Manufacturing......................................... 23.46 23.90 23.80 23.93 945.44 970.34 961.52 969.17

Durable goods...................................... 24.98 25.45 25.31 25.38 1,014.19 1,040.91 1,030.12 1,038.04

Nondurable goods................................. 20.99 21.28 21.23 21.44 837.50 851.20 844.95 853.31

Private service-providing............................... 22.44 22.88 22.89 22.91 742.76 761.90 759.95 762.90

Trade, transportation, and utilities.................. 19.76 20.15 20.19 20.18 681.72 697.19 694.54 698.23

Wholesale trade.................................... 26.17 26.42 26.40 26.42 1,002.31 1,025.10 1,021.68 1,022.45

Retail trade.......................................... 15.63 15.88 15.95 15.97 492.35 500.22 500.83 506.25

Transportation and warehousing................. 21.21 21.90 21.96 22.01 820.83 843.15 843.26 845.18

Utilities............................................... 32.78 33.97 34.18 33.71 1,353.81 1,433.53 1,425.31 1,385.48

Information............................................. 31.06 31.49 31.67 31.77 1,130.58 1,158.83 1,162.29 1,159.61

Financial activities.................................... 27.45 28.07 28.15 28.16 1,015.65 1,047.01 1,052.81 1,050.37

Professional and business services................ 27.34 28.00 28.01 28.02 973.30 1,002.40 999.96 1,003.12

Education and health services...................... 23.29 23.73 23.71 23.76 761.58 775.97 775.32 779.33

Leisure and hospitality............................... 13.12 13.32 13.29 13.31 338.50 346.32 346.87 347.39

Other services......................................... 20.46 20.56 20.63 20.72 646.54 649.70 649.85 654.75

p Preliminary
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-4. Indexes of aggregate weekly hours and payrolls for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by

industry sector, seasonally adjusted

[2007=100]

Industry

Index of aggregate weekly hours1

Index of aggregate weekly payrolls2

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Percent

change

from:

Nov.

2011 -

Dec.

2011p

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Percent

change

from:

Nov.

2011 -

Dec.

2011p

Total private....................................... 92.6 94.5 94.3 94.8 0.5 100.5 104.5 104.3 105.0 0.7

Goods-producing............................... 80.5 82.8 82.5 83.0 0.6 88.0 91.9 91.5 92.4 1.0

Mining and logging.......................... 100.3 115.1 114.2 115.6 1.2 111.1 130.8 130.2 132.9 2.1

Construction.................................. 72.0 73.1 73.1 73.9 1.1 79.2 80.9 81.0 82.0 1.2

Manufacturing................................ 83.8 85.9 85.5 85.9 0.5 91.5 95.5 94.7 95.6 1.0

Durable goods............................ 81.5 84.4 84.1 84.8 0.8 90.4 95.4 94.6 95.6 1.1

Nondurable goods........................ 88.4 88.6 87.9 87.9 0.0 94.2 95.6 94.7 95.6 1.0

Private service-providing...................... 95.9 97.8 97.7 98.1 0.4 104.3 108.5 108.3 108.9 0.6

Trade, transportation, and utilities......... 92.8 94.0 93.7 94.5 0.9 98.7 102.0 101.8 102.7 0.9

Wholesale trade........................... 91.6 94.0 93.8 93.9 0.1 100.0 103.7 103.3 103.6 0.3

Retail trade................................ 92.4 93.5 93.5 94.5 1.1 95.5 98.2 98.6 99.8 1.2

Transportation and warehousing. . . . . .. 94.5 94.4 94.2 95.3 1.2 101.8 104.9 104.9 106.4 1.4

Utilities..................................... 98.5 101.1 100.1 98.9 -1.2 106.7 113.5 113.1 110.1 -2.7

Information................................... 89.6 89.4 88.9 88.6 -0.3 99.0 100.2 100.2 100.2 0.0

Financial activities........................... 92.9 93.6 93.9 93.7 -0.2 99.5 102.6 103.2 103.0 -0.2

Professional and business services....... 94.6 97.5 97.4 97.7 0.3 104.8 110.6 110.5 110.9 0.4

Education and health services............. 105.2 107.1 107.3 107.8 0.5 114.7 119.1 119.2 120.0 0.7

Leisure and hospitality...................... 96.2 98.6 99.2 99.4 0.2 101.9 106.0 106.4 106.7 0.3

Other services............................... 94.9 95.5 95.3 95.6 0.3 110.1 111.4 111.5 112.5 0.9

1 The indexes of aggregate weekly hours are calculated by dividing the current month’s estimates of aggregate hours by the corresponding 2007 annual

average aggregate hours. Aggregate hours estimates are the product of estimates of average weekly hours and employment.

2 The indexes of aggregate weekly payrolls are calculated by dividing the current month’s estimates of aggregate weekly payrolls by the corresponding

2007 annual average aggregate weekly payrolls. Aggregate payrolls estimates are the product of estimates of average hourly earnings, average weekly

hours, and employment.

p Preliminary
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-5. Employment of women on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted

Industry

Women employees (in thousands) Percent of all employees

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Total nonfarm............................................... 64,657 65,040 65,089 65,178 49.6 49.4 49.4 49.4

Total private.............................................. 52,016 52,515 52,569 52,659 48.2 47.9 47.9 47.9

Goods-producing...................................... 4,063 4,051 4,040 4,044 22.8 22.4 22.3 22.3

Mining and logging................................. 99 108 110 111 13.5 13.3 13.5 13.5

Construction........................................ 714 710 707 710 13.0 12.8 12.8 12.8

Manufacturing....................................... 3,250 3,233 3,223 3,223 28.1 27.5 27.4 27.3

Durable goods................................... 1,719 1,715 1,714 1,717 24.1 23.4 23.3 23.3

Nondurable goods............................... 1,531 1,518 1,509 1,506 34.5 34.2 34.1 34.0

Private service-providing............................. 47,953 48,464 48,529 48,615 53.2 53.0 53.0 53.0

Trade, transportation, and utilities............... 9,979 9,993 10,009 10,032 40.3 40.0 40.0 39.9

Wholesale trade................................. 1,644.2 1,672.2 1,672.1 1,672.8 30.0 30.1 30.1 30.1

Retail trade....................................... 7,183.9 7,182.8 7,197.2 7,214.1 49.7 49.1 49.1 49.1

Transportation and warehousing.............. 1,015.2 1,003.8 1,005.1 1,009.6 23.8 23.4 23.5 23.3

Utilities............................................ 135.4 134.4 134.9 135.1 24.6 24.3 24.3 24.3

Information.......................................... 1,094 1,079 1,079 1,080 40.6 40.6 40.7 40.6

Financial activities.................................. 4,458 4,425 4,432 4,440 58.5 58.1 58.1 58.2

Professional and business services............. 7,518 7,705 7,711 7,723 44.5 44.5 44.5 44.5

Education and health services................... 15,215 15,439 15,461 15,483 77.0 76.7 76.7 76.7

Leisure and hospitality............................. 6,821 6,945 6,957 6,976 52.2 52.3 52.2 52.3

Other services...................................... 2,868 2,878 2,880 2,881 52.9 52.8 52.8 52.7

Government.............................................. 12,641 12,525 12,520 12,519 56.8 56.9 57.0 57.0

p Preliminary
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-6. Employment of production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry

sector, seasonally adjusted1

[In thousands]

Industry Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Total private................................................................................ 88,974 90,385 90,520 90,710

Goods-producing........................................................................ 12,808 13,064 13,049 13,099

Mining and logging................................................................... 553 612 613 618

Construction........................................................................... 4,162 4,191 4,179 4,199

Manufacturing......................................................................... 8,093 8,261 8,257 8,282

Durable goods...................................................................... 4,865 5,027 5,039 5,059

Nondurable goods................................................................. 3,228 3,234 3,218 3,223

Private service-providing............................................................... 76,166 77,321 77,471 77,611

Trade, transportation, and utilities.................................................. 20,915 21,188 21,235 21,289

Wholesale trade.................................................................... 4,383.6 4,451.0 4,452.0 4,463.0

Retail trade......................................................................... 12,434.9 12,605.2 12,647.8 12,674.2

Transportation and warehousing................................................. 3,657.4 3,690.9 3,693.5 3,709.6

Utilities............................................................................... 439.2 440.8 441.8 442.2

Information............................................................................ 2,166 2,136 2,133 2,141

Financial activities.................................................................... 5,845 5,830 5,834 5,840

Professional and business services................................................ 13,861 14,252 14,276 14,305

Education and health services...................................................... 17,328 17,623 17,658 17,688

Leisure and hospitality............................................................... 11,514 11,723 11,762 11,769

Other services........................................................................ 4,537 4,569 4,573 4,579

1 Data relate to production employees in mining and logging and manufacturing, construction employees in construction, and nonsupervisory employees

in the service-providing industries. These groups account for approximately four-fifths of the total employment on private nonfarm payrolls.

p Preliminary
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-7. Average weekly hours and overtime of production and nonsupervisory employees on private

nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted1

Industry Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

AVERAGE WEEKLY HOURS

Total private.............................................................................. 33.5 33.7 33.6 33.7

Goods-producing..................................................................... 40.5 40.9 40.9 41.0

Mining and logging................................................................ 44.9 47.6 47.2 47.3

Construction........................................................................ 38.6 38.9 39.1 39.2

Manufacturing...................................................................... 41.3 41.5 41.4 41.5

Durable goods................................................................... 41.6 41.8 41.7 41.9

Nondurable goods............................................................... 40.7 40.9 40.8 40.8

Private service-providing............................................................ 32.3 32.4 32.4 32.5

Trade, transportation, and utilities............................................... 33.6 33.8 33.7 33.9

Wholesale trade................................................................. 38.2 38.6 38.5 38.6

Retail trade....................................................................... 30.5 30.6 30.6 30.9

Transportation and warehousing.............................................. 37.7 37.7 37.8 37.8

Utilities............................................................................ 42.2 41.8 41.7 41.1

Information.......................................................................... 36.1 36.2 36.1 36.1

Financial activities................................................................. 36.3 36.5 36.3 36.3

Professional and business services............................................. 35.3 35.2 35.2 35.2

Education and health services................................................... 32.1 32.3 32.3 32.3

Leisure and hospitality............................................................ 24.7 24.8 24.8 24.9

Other services...................................................................... 30.7 30.8 30.8 30.9

AVERAGE OVERTIME HOURS

Manufacturing............................................................................ 4.0 4.1 4.1 4.1

Durable goods........................................................................ 4.1 4.2 4.1 4.2

Nondurable goods.................................................................... 3.9 4.0 4.0 3.9

1 Data relate to production employees in mining and logging and manufacturing, construction employees in construction, and nonsupervisory employees

in the service-providing industries. These groups account for approximately four-fifths of the total employment on private nonfarm payrolls.

p Preliminary
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-8. Average hourly and weekly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees on private

nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted1

Industry

Average hourly earnings Average weekly earnings

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Total private................................................. $19.23 $19.53 $19.54 $19.54 $ 644.21 $ 658.16 $ 656.54 $ 658.50

Goods-producing........................................ 20.49 20.76 20.77 20.84 829.85 849.08 849.49 854.44

Mining and logging................................... 24.02 24.79 24.89 24.58 1,078.50 1,180.00 1,174.81 1,162.63

Construction........................................... 23.44 23.74 23.76 23.90 904.78 923.49 929.02 936.88

Manufacturing......................................... 18.80 19.00 18.98 19.05 776.44 788.50 785.77 790.58

Durable goods...................................... 20.03 20.19 20.15 20.13 833.25 843.94 840.26 843.45

Nondurable goods................................. 16.91 17.11 17.12 17.32 688.24 699.80 698.50 706.66

Private service-providing............................... 18.97 19.26 19.28 19.27 612.73 624.02 624.67 626.28

Trade, transportation, and utilities.................. 16.97 17.20 17.21 17.13 570.19 581.36 579.98 580.71

Wholesale trade.................................... 21.79 22.02 21.99 21.96 832.38 849.97 846.62 847.66

Retail trade.......................................... 13.36 13.53 13.58 13.51 407.48 414.02 415.55 417.46

Transportation and warehousing................. 19.28 19.59 19.53 19.48 726.86 738.54 738.23 736.34

Utilities............................................... 30.13 30.93 31.33 31.11 1,271.49 1,292.87 1,306.46 1,278.62

Information............................................. 26.09 26.73 26.72 26.78 941.85 967.63 964.59 966.76

Financial activities.................................... 21.63 21.94 22.05 22.14 785.17 800.81 800.42 803.68

Professional and business services................ 22.84 23.15 23.18 23.19 806.25 814.88 815.94 816.29

Education and health services...................... 20.42 20.87 20.87 20.90 655.48 674.10 674.10 675.07

Leisure and hospitality............................... 11.31 11.49 11.49 11.49 279.36 284.95 284.95 286.10

Other services......................................... 17.24 17.30 17.33 17.37 529.27 532.84 533.76 536.73

1 Data relate to production employees in mining and logging and manufacturing, construction employees in construction, and nonsupervisory employees

in the service-providing industries. These groups account for approximately four-fifths of the total employment on private nonfarm payrolls.

p Preliminary
ESTABLISHMENT DATA

Table B-9. Indexes of aggregate weekly hours and payrolls for production and nonsupervisory employees on

private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted1

[2002=100]

Industry

Index of aggregate weekly hours2

Index of aggregate weekly payrolls3

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Percent

change

from:

Nov.

2011 -

Dec.

2011p

Dec.

2010

Oct.

2011

Nov.

2011p

Dec.

2011p

Percent

change

from:

Nov.

2011 -

Dec.

2011p

Total private....................................... 99.6 101.8 101.6 102.1 0.5 128.0 132.8 132.7 133.4 0.5

Goods-producing............................... 79.3 81.7 81.6 82.1 0.6 99.5 103.8 103.7 104.7 1.0

Mining and logging.......................... 131.9 154.8 153.8 155.3 1.0 184.3 223.2 222.6 222.1 -0.2

Construction.................................. 80.4 81.6 81.8 82.4 0.7 101.8 104.6 105.0 106.4 1.3

Manufacturing................................ 76.7 78.7 78.5 78.9 0.5 94.3 97.8 97.4 98.3 0.9

Durable goods............................ 76.0 78.9 78.9 79.6 0.9 95.1 99.5 99.3 100.1 0.8

Nondurable goods........................ 77.4 77.9 77.4 77.5 0.1 92.5 94.2 93.6 94.8 1.3

Private service-providing...................... 105.2 107.1 107.3 107.9 0.6 136.8 141.5 141.9 142.5 0.4

Trade, transportation, and utilities......... 98.0 99.8 99.8 100.6 0.8 118.6 122.5 122.5 122.9 0.3

Wholesale trade........................... 98.6 101.2 100.9 101.5 0.6 126.6 131.2 130.8 131.2 0.3

Retail trade................................ 96.0 97.6 98.0 99.1 1.1 109.9 113.2 114.0 114.8 0.7

Transportation and warehousing. . . . . .. 103.8 104.7 105.1 105.6 0.5 126.9 130.2 130.2 130.4 0.2

Utilities..................................... 94.8 94.2 94.2 93.0 -1.3 119.2 121.7 123.2 120.7 -2.0

Information................................... 89.3 88.3 87.9 88.2 0.3 115.3 116.8 116.3 117.0 0.6

Financial activities........................... 101.5 101.8 101.3 101.4 0.1 135.8 138.1 138.2 138.9 0.5

Professional and business services....... 109.7 112.4 112.6 112.9 0.3 149.0 154.9 155.3 155.7 0.3

Education and health services............. 120.0 122.8 123.0 123.2 0.2 161.1 168.5 168.8 169.3 0.3

Leisure and hospitality...................... 104.2 106.6 106.9 107.4 0.5 133.9 139.0 139.5 140.2 0.5

Other services............................... 97.7 98.7 98.8 99.3 0.5 122.7 124.4 124.8 125.6 0.6

1 Data relate to production employees in mining and logging and manufacturing, construction employees in construction, and nonsupervisory employees

in the service-providing industries. These groups account for approximately four-fifths of the total employment on private nonfarm payrolls.

2 The indexes of aggregate weekly hours are calculated by dividing the current month’s estimates of aggregate hours by the corresponding 2002 annual

average aggregate hours. Aggregate hours estimates are the product of estimates of average weekly hours and employment.

3 The indexes of aggregate weekly payrolls are calculated by dividing the current month’s estimates of aggregate weekly payrolls by the corresponding

2002 annual average aggregate weekly payrolls. Aggregate payrolls estimates are the product of estimates of average hourly earnings, average weekly

hours, and employment.

p Preliminary