Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 

under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 

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

Statement of

Keith Hall

Commissioner

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall in June 

(-467,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.5 

percent. Since the recession began in December 2007, payroll 

employment has dropped by 6.5 million, and the unemployment rate 

has increased by 4.6 percentage points.

Payroll employment declines continued to be widespread 

among the major industries. In June, there were large decreases 

in manufacturing, construction, and professional and business 

services. Together, these three sectors have accounted for 

nearly three-quarters of the jobs lost since the recession 

began.

Manufacturing employment fell by 136,000 in June, bringing 

job loss in this industry to 1.9 million since the start of the 

recession. Motor vehicle and parts employment declined by 
2

27,000 over the month; since the start of the recession, the 

industry has lost 335,000 jobs, about one-third of its total. 

Construction employment decreased by 79,000 in June. Job 

losses in the industry have totaled 1.3 million during this 

recession.

Employment in professional and business services dropped by 

118,000 in June. Job losses occurred throughout the industry, 

including temporary help services (-38,000), services to 

buildings and dwellings (-17,000), and architectural and 

engineering services (-14,000). Since the start of the 

recession, professional and business services has lost 

1.5 million jobs; temporary help services accounted for over 

half of this decline.

Federal government employment fell by 49,000 in June, 

largely reflecting the layoff of workers temporarily hired to 

prepare for Census 2010. Elsewhere in the service-providing 

sector, job losses continued in financial activities (-27,000), 

information (-21,000), and wholesale trade (-16,000). Retail 

trade employment edged down over the month (-21,000); losses 

continued among auto dealerships (-9,000). 

The health care industry added 21,000 jobs over the month,

in line with its average monthly gain for the first 5 months of 

this year, but below the average gain of 30,000 jobs per month

in 2008. 
3

Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory 

workers in the private sector were unchanged in June at $18.53. 

Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 

2.7 percent. From May 2008 to May 2009, the Consumer Price 

Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers declined by 

1.5 percent.

Turning to measures from the household survey, the 

unemployment rate was little changed at 9.5 percent in June. 

The rate had increased by 0.4 or 0.5 percentage points in each 

of the prior 6 months. Since the onset of the recession in 

December 2007, the unemployment rate has risen by 4.6 percentage 

points. There were 14.7 million unemployed persons in June, 

little changed from the prior month. Since December 2007, 

unemployment has risen by 7.2 million. 

The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks or longer 

continued to increase in June. The 4.4 million long-term 

jobless individuals accounted for 3 in 10 unemployed persons.

The employment-population ratio edged down to 59.5 percent 

in June. The ratio has fallen by 3.2 percentage points since 

the recession began.

Among the employed, there were 9.0 million persons working 

part time in June who would have preferred full-time work. 

After rising sharply last fall and winter, this measure has been 

little changed since March.
4

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall in 

June (-467,000), with job losses totaling 6.5 million since the 

recession began. The unemployment rate, at 9.5 percent, was

little changed over the month.