Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 

under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 

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

Statement of 

Erica L. Groshen 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, September 4, 2015

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 173,000 in August, 

and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.1 percent. Employment 

rose in health care and social assistance and in financial 

activities, while manufacturing and mining employment declined. 

Incorporating revisions for June and July, which increased 

nonfarm payroll employment by 44,000, monthly job gains have 

averaged 221,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 months prior 

to August, employment growth averaged 247,000 per month. 

Health care and social assistance employment rose by 56,000 

over the month. Health care accounted for 41,000 of the gain, 

with ambulatory health care services and hospitals adding 21,000 

and 16,000 jobs, respectively. Employment in social assistance, 

which includes child day care services and services for the 

elderly and disabled, was up by 16,000. Over the year, 
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employment has risen by 457,000 in health care and by 107,000 in 

social assistance. 

Employment in financial activities rose by 19,000 in August 

and has expanded by 170,000 over the past 12 months. Within the 

industry, job gains occurred in real estate (+8,000) and in 

securities, commodity contracts, and investments (+5,000) in 

August. 

Employment continued to trend up in professional and 

business services (+33,000) and in food services and drinking 

places (+26,000) over the month. 

Manufacturing employment declined by 17,000 over the month, 

after changing little in July (+12,000). Thus far this year, 

manufacturing employment has shown little net change. In August, 

job losses in fabricated metal products (-7,000), food 

manufacturing (-7,000), and several other industries more than 

offset gains in motor vehicles and parts (+6,000) and 

miscellaneous durable goods manufacturing (+4,000). 

Mining employment fell by 9,000 in August. Since its recent 

peak in December 2014, mining employment has declined by 90,000; 

job losses in support activities for mining accounted for 80 

percent of the decline over this period. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 8 cents in August to $25.09, following a 6-cent 

increase in July. Over the past 12 months, average hourly 
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earnings have risen by 2.2 percent. From July 2014 to July 2015, 

the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) 

increased by 0.2 percentage point (on a seasonally adjusted 

basis). 

Turning now to data from the survey of households, both the 

unemployment rate (5.1 percent) and the number of unemployed 

(8.0 million) edged down in August. Among the unemployed, 27.7 

percent, or 2.2 million, had been unemployed 27 weeks or more, 

essentially unchanged from the prior month. 

The labor force participation rate was 62.6 percent in 

August for the third consecutive month. The employmentpopulation ratio, at 59.4 percent, was essentially unchanged. 

Among those employed, 6.5 million were working part time 

for economic reasons, little changed over the month. These 

individuals, also referred to as involuntary part-time workers, 

would have preferred full-time employment but were working part 

time because their hours had been cut back or because they were 

unable to find full-time work. 

Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 

in August, 1.8 million were classified as marginally attached to 

the labor force, down from 2.1 million a year earlier. These 

individuals had not looked for work in the 4 weeks prior to the 

survey but wanted a job, were available for work, and had looked 

for a job within the last 12 months. The number of discouraged 
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workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, was 624,000 in August, down 

from 775,000 a year earlier. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 173,000 

in August, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.1 percent.