Transmission of material in this statement is embargoed until 

8:30 a.m. (ET) September 4, 2020.

Statement of 

William W. Beach 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, September 4, 2020

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 1.4 million in 

August, and the unemployment rate declined by 1.8 percentage 

points to 8.4 percent. These improvements reflect the continued 

resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to 

the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. 

In August, employment rose in several major industry 

sectors. A gain in government largely reflected the hiring of 

temporary workers for the 2020 Census. Notable job gains also 

occurred in retail trade, in professional and business services, 

in leisure and hospitality, and in education and health 

services. 

The August payroll employment increase of 1.4 million 

followed gains of 1.7 million in July, 4.8 million in June, and 

2.7 million in May. As of August, total nonfarm employment is 

11.5 million, or 7.6 percent, lower than in February, before the 

pandemic crisis unfolded in many parts of the United States. 
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Although unemployment fell for the fourth month in a row in 

August, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed 

people are up by 4.9 percentage points and 7.8 million, 

respectively, since February. 

The response rate for the establishment survey was above 

normal for August, and the rate for the household survey, while 

still well below normal due to pandemic-related issues, ticked 

up over the month. The impact of the pandemic on the household 

and payroll surveys is detailed in the August Employment 

Situation news release and accompanying materials (available on 

the BLS website at www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm). For 

both surveys, we were able to obtain estimates that meet BLS 

standards for accuracy and reliability. 

Taking a closer look at the August payroll data, employment 

in government increased by 344,000, accounting for one-fourth of 

the over-the-month growth in total nonfarm employment. Federal

government employment rose by 251,000, reflecting the hiring of 

238,000 temporary workers for the 2020 Census. Local government 

added 95,000 jobs over the month. Despite these gains, 

employment in government is 831,000 lower than in February. 

Employment in retail trade increased by 249,000 in August.

Job growth occurred in most retail industries in August, 

although almost half of the gain occurred in general merchandise 

stores (+116,000). Other notable job gains occurred in motor 
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vehicle and parts dealers (+22,000), electronics and appliance 

stores (+21,000), miscellaneous store retailers (+17,000), and 

health and personal care stores (+15,000). In August, retail 

trade employment was 655,000 lower than in February. 

In August, professional and business services added 197,000 

jobs, with more than half of the gain occurring in temporary 

help services (+107,000). Elsewhere in the industry, 

architectural and engineering services (+14,000), computer 

systems design and related services (+13,000), and business 

support services (+13,000) added jobs over the month. On net, 

employment in professional and business services is 1.5 million 

below its February level. 

Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 174,000 

in August, after gains of 621,000 in July and 2.0 million in 

June. However, employment is 4.1 million lower than in February. 

Within the industry, food services and drinking places added 

134,000 jobs in August, but employment is 2.5 million lower than 

the February level. 

In August, education and health services added 147,000 

jobs. Health care employment increased by 75,000, with gains in 

offices of physicians (+27,000), offices of dentists (+22,000), 

hospitals (+14,000), and home health care services (+12,000). 

Elsewhere in health care, job losses continued over the month in 

nursing and residential care facilities (-14,000), with declines 
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totaling 229,000 since February. Employment in private education 

rose by 57,000 in August. Overall, employment in education and 

health services is down by 1.5 million from February. 

Employment in transportation and warehousing increased by 

78,000 in August but is down by 381,000 since February. In 

August, notable job gains occurred in warehousing and storage 

(+34,000), transit and ground passenger transportation 

(+11,000), and truck transportation (+10,000). 

Employment in the other services industry rose by 74,000 in 

August, with gains occurring in membership associations and 

organizations (+31,000), repair and maintenance (+29,000), and 

personal and laundry services (+14,000). Since February, 

employment in the other services industry is down by 531,000. 

In August, employment in financial activities increased by 

36,000 but is 191,000 lower than its February level. Over the 

month, job gains occurred in real estate and rental and leasing 

(+23,000) and nondepository credit intermediation (+10,000). 

Employment in manufacturing rose by 29,000 in August, with 

most of the gain occurring in the nondurable goods component 

(+27,000). Since February, manufacturing employment is down by 

720,000. 

In August, wholesale trade added 14,000 jobs, with an 

increase in nondurable goods (+9,000). Employment in wholesale 

trade is 328,000 lower than its February level. 
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Construction employment changed little in August (+16,000) 

but is 425,000 lower than in February. Within specialty trade 

construction, residential contractors added jobs in August 

(+25,000), while nonresidential contractors lost jobs (-16,000).

Average weekly hours for all private-sector workers rose by 

0.1 hour in August to 34.6 hours. The average workweek for 

manufacturing rose by 0.3 hour in August to 40.0 hours. One 

should continue to be cautious when interpreting changes in the 

workweek at the total private level. In particular, large 

employment changes in industries with shorter- or longer-thanaverage workweeks can complicate monthly comparisons of average 

weekly hours. 

Similarly, changes in average hourly earnings in recent 

months must be interpreted with caution. Average hourly earnings 

of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 11 

cents in August to $29.47, following an increase of 4 cents in 

July. 

Turning to the labor market indicators from the household 

survey, the unemployment rate declined by 1.8 percentage points 

to 8.4 percent in August, and the number of unemployed people 

decreased by 2.8 million to 13.6 million. Both measures have 

decreased for 4 consecutive months, but remain much higher than 

in February, before the pandemic. 
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As in the prior 3 months, the decrease in unemployment in 

August was driven by a decline among people on temporary layoff 

(-3.1 million). The decline was partially offset by an increase 

in the number of permanent job losers, which rose by 534,000 to 

3.4 million. The number of unemployed reentrants to the labor 

force decreased by 263,000 in August to 2.1 million. 

The unemployment rates fell in August for adult men (8.0 

percent), adult women (8.4 percent), teenagers (16.1 percent), 

Whites (7.3 percent), Blacks (13.0 percent), and Hispanics (10.5 

percent). The rate for Asians (10.7 percent) changed little.

Among the unemployed, the number of people searching for 

work for less than 5 weeks declined by 921,000 to 2.3 million in 

August. The number of unemployed people who were jobless 5 to 14 

weeks fell by 2.0 million to 3.1 million. The number of people 

who were jobless 15 to 26 weeks was essentially unchanged at 6.5 

million; these individuals accounted for 48.1 percent of the 

unemployed. The number of people searching for work for 27 weeks 

or more also was little changed, at 1.6 million.

The labor force participation rate increased by 0.3 

percentage point in August to 61.7 percent but is 1.7 percentage 

points below its February level. Total employment, as measured 

by the household survey, rose by 3.8 million over the month to 

147.3 million. The employment-population ratio increased by 1.4 
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percentage points to 56.5 percent but is 4.6 percentage points 

lower than in February. 

The number of people who usually work full time rose by 2.8 

million in August to 122.4 million, and the number who usually 

work part time increased by 991,000 to 25.0 million.

In August, the number of people at work part time for 

economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers) decreased by 871,000 to 7.6 million, reflecting the 

continued decline in the number of people whose hours were cut 

due to slack work or business conditions. The August decline in 

involuntary part-time workers follows decreases of 619,000 in 

July and 1.6 million in June. The number of workers affected by 

this type of underemployment was 3.3 million higher than its 

February level. 

The number of people not in the labor force who currently 

want a job declined by 747,000 in August to 7.0 million. This 

measure is 2.0 million higher than in February. 

Among those who were not in the labor force in August but 

wanted a job, 2.1 million were considered marginally attached to 

the labor force, little changed over the month. (People who are 

marginally attached to the labor force had not actively 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.) Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 
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attached who believed no jobs were available for them, numbered 

535,000 in August, down by 130,000 over the month. 

As has been the case since March, household survey 

interviewers were instructed in August to classify employed 

persons absent from work due to temporary, coronavirus-related 

business closures or cutbacks as unemployed on temporary layoff. 

BLS and Census Bureau analyses of the underlying data suggest 

that there still may be some workers affected by the pandemic 

who should have been classified as unemployed on temporary 

layoff. However, the share of responses that may have been 

misclassified was much smaller in July and August than in prior 

months. 

For March through July, BLS published an estimate of what 

the unemployment rate would have been had misclassified workers 

been included. Repeating this same approach, the overall August 

unemployment rate would have been 0.7 percentage point higher 

than reported. However, this represents the upper bound of our 

estimate of misclassification and probably overstates the size 

of the misclassification error. BLS continues to conduct 

research on this issue. Additional information is available 

online at www.bls.gov/covid19/employment-situation-covid19-faqaugust-2020.htm.

Beginning in May, questions were added to the household 

survey to help gauge the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on 
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the labor market. The data from these questions shed more light 

on how work and job search activity have been affected by the 

pandemic. 

In August, 24.3 percent of employed people teleworked 

because of the coronavirus pandemic, down from 26.4 percent in 

July. These data refer to employed people who teleworked or 

worked at home for pay at some point in the last 4 weeks 

specifically because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

In August, 24.2 million people reported that they had been 

unable to work because their employer closed or lost business 

due to the pandemic--that is, they did not work at all or worked 

fewer hours at some point in the last 4 weeks due to the 

pandemic. This was down from 31.3 million in July. Among those 

who reported in August that they were unable to work because of 

pandemic-related closures or lost business, 11.6 percent 

received at least some pay from their employer for the hours not 

worked. 

About 5.2 million people not in the labor force in August 

were prevented from looking for work due to the pandemic. This 

is down from 6.5 million in July. (To be counted as unemployed, 

by definition, individuals must either be actively looking for 

work or on temporary layoff.) 

These supplemental data are not seasonally adjusted. Tables 

with estimates from the supplemental questions for all months 
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are available online at www.bls.gov/cps/effects-of-thecoronavirus-covid-19-pandemic.htm.

Summarizing the major labor market developments in August, 

nonfarm payroll employment increased by 1.4 million, and the 

unemployment rate declined to 8.4 percent.