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, October 2, 2015

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in 

September, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.1 

percent. Employment rose in health care and information, while 

mining lost jobs. Thus far in 2015, nonfarm job growth has 

averaged 198,000 per month, compared with an average monthly 

gain of 260,000 in 2014. 

Incorporating revisions for July and August, which 

decreased nonfarm payroll employment by 59,000, monthly job 

gains have averaged 167,000 over the past 3 months. 

Health care employment rose by 34,000 in September, in line 

with its average monthly gain of 38,000 over the prior 12 

months. Hospitals added 16,000 jobs over the month, and 

employment in ambulatory health care continued to trend up 

(+13,000). 

Employment in information grew by 12,000 in September. Over 

the year, the industry has added 44,000 jobs. 
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Employment in professional and business services continued 

to trend up over the month (+31,000). Job growth has averaged 

45,000 per month thus far in 2015, compared with an average 

monthly gain of 59,000 in 2014. In September, employment rose in 

computer systems design (+7,000) and legal services (+5,000). 

Retail trade employment trended up in September (+24,000), 

in line with the average gain of 27,000 per month over the prior 

12 months. In September, job gains occurred in general 

merchandise stores (+10,000) and auto dealers (+5,000). 

Employment in food services and drinking places also 

continued to trend up in September (+21,000). Over the year, 

employment in this industry has expanded by 349,000. 

Mining employment fell by 10,000 in September, and has 

declined by 102,000 since reaching a peak in December 2014. In 

September, support activities for mining lost 7,000 jobs. 

Construction employment was little changed in September 

and has shown little movement over the past several months. 

Manufacturing employment also changed little in September 

and has shown little net change thus far this year. 

In September, average hourly earnings of all employees on 

private nonfarm payrolls, at $25.09, were little changed 

(-1 cent), following a rise of 9 cents in August. Over the past 

12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.2 percent. 

From August 2014 to August 2015, the Consumer Price Index for 
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all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 0.2 percentage point 

(on a seasonally adjusted basis). 

Turning to measures from the household survey, the 

unemployment rate held at 5.1 percent in September, and the 

number of unemployed was little changed at 7.9 million. Among 

the unemployed, 2.1 million, or 26.6 percent, had been 

unemployed for 27 weeks or more, little changed from the prior 

month. 

The labor force participation rate decreased to 62.4 

percent in September; it had been 62.6 percent for the prior 3 

months. The employment-population ratio edged down to 59.2 

percent over the month after showing little change for the first 

8 months of the year. 

The number of persons employed part time for economic 

reasons fell by 447,000 to 6.0 million in September. 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. The number of persons working 

part time for economic reasons has declined by 1.0 million over 

the past year. 

Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 

in September, 1.9 million were classified as marginally attached 

to the labor force, down from 2.2 million a year earlier. These 
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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 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, was 635,000 in September, 

little changed from a year earlier. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 

in September, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.1 

percent.