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 

William W. Beach

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, July 5, 2019

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 224,000 in June, 

and the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.7 percent. 

Over the month, notable job gains occurred in professional and 

business services, in health care, and in transportation and 

warehousing.

Incorporating revisions for April and May, which decreased 

employment by 11,000, monthly job gains averaged 172,000 in the 

first half of 2019. This is below the average monthly job gain 

of 223,000 for 2018. 

In June, professional and business services added 51,000 

jobs, following little employment change in May (+24,000). Thus 

far in 2019, employment growth in professional and business 

services has averaged 35,000 per month, compared with an average 

of 47,000 per month in 2018. 
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Health care employment increased by 35,000 in June, 

including gains in ambulatory health care services (+19,000) and 

hospitals (+11,000). Over the past 12 months, health care has 

added 403,000 jobs. 

Employment in transportation and warehousing expanded by 

24,000 in June, with gains in couriers and messengers (+7,000) 

and air transportation (+3,000). Overall, transportation and 

warehousing has added 158,000 jobs over the past 12 months. 

Construction employment continued to trend up in June 

(+21,000). Over the past 12 months, construction employment has 

increased by 224,000. 

In June, employment in manufacturing edged up (+17,000),

following little change in recent months. Job gains occurred in 

computer and electronic products (+7,000) and in plastics and 

rubber products (+4,000) in June. So far in 2019, employment 

growth in manufacturing has averaged 8,000 per month, compared 

with 22,000 per month in 2018.

Employment showed little change over the month in other 

major industries--including mining, wholesale trade, retail 

trade, information, financial activities, leisure and 

hospitality, and government. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 6 cents in June to $27.90, following a 9-cent 

gain in May. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings 
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have risen by 3.1 percent; the over-the-year percent change has 

been 3.0 percent or above for 11 consecutive months. From May

2018 to May 2019, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban 

Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.8 percent (on a seasonally 

adjusted basis). 

Turning to measures from the survey of households, both the 

unemployment rate, at 3.7 percent, and the number of unemployed 

people, at 6.0 million, were little changed in June.

Among the unemployed, the number of people searching for 

work for 27 weeks or more was little changed in June, at 1.4 

million. These long-term unemployed accounted for 23.7 percent 

of the unemployed. 

The labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, was 

about unchanged in June. The employment-population ratio was 

60.6 percent for the fourth month in a row. 

In June, 4.3 million people were working part time for 

economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers), essentially unchanged from the previous month. 

Among those neither working nor looking for work in June, 

1.6 million were considered marginally attached to the labor 

force, little changed 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 for work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 
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months.) Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 

attached who believed no jobs were available for them, numbered 

425,000 in June, also little changed from a year earlier. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 224,000 

in June, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.7 

percent.