Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 

under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 

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

Statement of 

William J. Wiatrowski 

Acting Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, December 7, 2018

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 155,000 in November, and 

the unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent. Job gains occurred in 

health care, in manufacturing, and in transportation and 

warehousing. 

Incorporating revisions for September and October, which 

decreased nonfarm payroll employment by 12,000 on net, monthly 

job gains have averaged 170,000 over the past 3 months. 

 Health care employment grew by 32,000 over the month and 

has expanded by 328,000 over the year. Within the industry, 

ambulatory health care services (+19,000) and hospitals 

(+13,000) added jobs in November. 

Manufacturing employment rose by 27,000 in November, with 

job gains in chemicals (+6,000) and primary metals (+3,000). 

Over the past 12 months, manufacturing has added 288,000 jobs. 
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Employment in transportation and warehousing increased by 

25,000 over the month and was up by 192,000 over the year. In 

November, job growth occurred in couriers and messengers 

(+10,000) and in warehousing and storage (+6,000). These two 

industries accounted for about two-thirds of the employment 

growth in transportation and warehousing over the past year. 

Employment in professional and business services continued 

to trend up in November (+32,000). Over the past 12 months, this 

industry has added 561,000 jobs. 

Retail trade employment changed little in November 

(+18,000). Employment in general merchandise stores--which 

includes department stores, warehouse clubs, and supercenters--

rose by 39,000 over the month. Miscellaneous store retailers 

also added jobs (+10,000). These gains were partially offset, 

however, by job losses in clothing and clothing accessories 

stores (-14,000); electronics and appliance stores (-11,000); 

and sporting goods, hobby, and book stores (-11,000). 

Employment in other major industries--including mining, 

construction, wholesale trade, information, financial 

activities, leisure and hospitality, and government--showed 

little change over the month. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 6 cents in November to $27.35. Over the past 12 

months, average hourly earnings have grown by 3.1 percent. From 
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October 2017 to October 2018, the Consumer Price Index for All 

Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 2.5 percent (on a 

seasonally adjusted basis). 

Turning to measures from the household survey, the 

unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7 percent in November, and 

the number of unemployed people, at 6.0 million, changed little. 

Over the year, the jobless rate was down by 0.4 percentage 

point, and the number of unemployed fell by 641,000. 

In November, the number of unemployed who had been 

searching for work for 27 weeks or longer declined by 120,000 to 

1.3 million. These long-term unemployed accounted for 20.8 

percent of the total unemployed. 

Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, 

and the employment-population ratio, at 60.6 percent, were 

unchanged over the month. Over the year, the labor force 

participation rate has shown little change, while the 

employment-population ratio was up by 0.5 percentage point. 

In November, 4.8 million people were working part time for 

economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers), little changed from the previous month. 

 Among those neither working nor looking for work in 

November, 1.7 million were considered marginally attached to the 

labor force, up by 197,000 from a year earlier. Discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed no 
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jobs were available for them, numbered 453,000 in November, 

essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (People who are 

marginally attached to the labor force had not looked for work 

in the 4 weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were 

available to work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 

months.) 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 155,000 in 

November, and the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent for the 

third month in a row.