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 Standard Time.

Statement of

Kathleen P. Utgoff

Commissioner

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Friday, November 1, 2002

Overall, labor market conditions were little changed 

in October. The unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, 

essentially the same as in September, and nonfarm payroll 

employment held at 130.9 million. The unemployment rate 

has shown no clear trend since this past spring, and 

payroll employment appears to have leveled off in recent 

months following a period of modest growth from May through 

August.

Although topside payroll employment held steady in 

October (-5,000), there were offsetting movements among 

various industries. Employment in manufacturing continued 

to trend down as the nation’s factories shed 49,000 jobs. 

The rate of job loss in manufacturing has been higher over 

the past 3 months than it had been from April to July. In 
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October, job losses were concentrated in durable goods 

production, with the largest decline occurring in 

electrical equipment. The manufacturing workweek fell by 

0.2 hour to 40.7 hours in October, while factory overtime 

remained at 4.1 hours. 

Employment in construction declined by 27,000 in 

October, reflecting job losses among special trade 

contractors. Although there have been some monthly 

fluctuations, construction employment has hovered close to 

6.5 million since the spring of this year, after a 

relatively modest decline that followed the onset of the 

recent recession. 

Help supply services, which supplies temporary 

personnel on a contractual basis, lost 56,000 jobs in 

October. That industry had generally been on an upward 

trend since early this year. It is possible that some of 

October's decline reflects recent weakness in 

manufacturing.

On the positive side, several notable employment gains 

were scattered within the service-producing sector of the 

economy in October. There was especially strong growth in 

mortgage banking (+17,000). Almost 100,000 jobs have been 

added in the industry since the beginning of 2001, 

reflecting robust home sales and high levels of refinancing 
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activity spurred by low interest rates. Similarly, 

employment in real estate has been partly buoyed by strong 

housing sales and was up by 11,000 in October. In 

services, job gains continued in health services (+20,000). 

In government, Federal employment was up for the fifth 

month in a row, largely because of hiring in the 

Transportation Security Administration, and employment in 

local government continued its upward trend. 

Employment in the transportation industry was 

essentially unchanged over the month. Workers involved in 

the labor dispute at West Coast ports had returned to work 

as of the October survey reference period. Thus, the 

dispute had no direct impact on the employment estimates 

for this industry. 

Average hourly earnings of production or 

nonsupervisory workers in the private sector rose by 3 

cents to $14.89 in October. Over the year, hourly earnings 

increased by 3.0 percent.

Data from our survey of households also pointed to 

little change in the overall job market in October. Both 

the number of unemployed persons, at 8.2 million, and the 

unemployment rate, at 5.7 percent, were about the same as 

in September. The unemployment rate for adult women edged 

up in October, but jobless rates for other major worker 
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groups—adult men, teenagers, whites, blacks, and Hispanics—

showed little or no change. About 1.7 million unemployed 

persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more in October, 

and some 4.3 million employed persons were working part 

time even though they would have preferred a full-time 

schedule. Both of these measures have shown little 

definitive change in recent months.

In summary, overall payroll employment was little 

changed in October for the second month in a row. Job 

declines in manufacturing have increased recently; however, 

growth continued in health services and mortgage banking. 

The unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, essentially the same 

as in September.