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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, May 8, 2020 

(NOTE: On May 11, 2020, BLS corrected errors in national estimates 

for seasonally adjusted all employees in professional and 

technical services, professional and business services, private 

service-providing, service-providing, total private, and total 

nonfarm. The corrected change in total nonfarm employment for 

April is 37,000 lower than initially reported. Estimates in the 

LABSTAT database and in this statement were corrected for 

February, March, and April 2020. BLS also corrected other 

supporting documentation on www.bls.gov/ces/.)

Nonfarm payroll employment declined by 20.5 million in 

April, and the unemployment rate increased to 14.7 percent, 

reflecting the widespread impact on the job market of the 

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

Employment fell sharply in all major industry sectors, with a 

particularly large decline in the leisure and hospitality 

sector. 

The response rate for the household survey continued to be 

adversely affected by pandemic-related issues, while that for 

the establishment survey returned to a normal range in April. 

In addition, there were changes to the estimation methods for 

the establishment survey to better account for the historic 
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number of temporary or permanent business closures in April. The 

impacts of the pandemic on the household and payroll surveys are 

detailed in the April Employment Situation news release and 

accompanying materials (available on the BLS website at 

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm). For both 

surveys, we were able to obtain estimates that met BLS standards 

for accuracy and reliability. 

The substantial job declines related to the coronavirus 

pandemic started in March, as payroll employment declined by 

881,000, as revised. Job losses accelerated in April, as an 

additional 20.5 million jobs were lost. These April losses were 

pervasive across all industry sectors, and brought nonfarm 

employment to its lowest level since January 2011. 

Employment in the leisure and hospitality industry 

decreased by 7.7 million in April, or 47 percent. Job losses in 

food services and drinking places accounted for nearly threequarters of the decline, as many restaurants and bars were 

closed or curtailed operations due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Elsewhere in leisure and hospitality, employment was down by 1.3 

million in the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry, and 

the number of jobs in the accommodation industry fell by 

839,000. 

Employment declined by 2.5 million in education and health 

services in April. Health care employment declined by 1.4 
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million, with decreases in offices of dentists (-503,000), 

offices of physicians (-243,000), offices of other health 

practitioners (-205,000), and hospitals (-135,000). Employment 

in social assistance decreased by 651,000 over the month, 

reflecting job cuts in child day care services (-336,000) and 

individual and family services (-241,000). Employment in private 

education declined by 457,000 over the month. 

Employment in professional and business services declined 

by 2.2 million in April. Much of the overall decline occurred in 

temporary help services (-842,000). Employment also declined in 

services to buildings and dwellings (-259,000), computer systems 

design (-93,000), and architectural and engineering services 

(-85,000). 

Employment in retail trade also decreased by 2.1 million 

over the month. Sizable job declines occurred in clothing stores 

(-740,000); motor vehicle and parts dealers (-345,000); 

miscellaneous store retailers (-264,000); furniture stores 

(-209,000); and sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores 

(-185,000). By contrast, the component of general merchandise 

stores that includes warehouse clubs and supercenters added 

93,000 jobs. 

Manufacturing employment fell by 1.3 million in April, with 

about two-thirds of the decline occurring in the durable goods 

component (-914,000). Within durable goods, large decreases 
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occurred in motor vehicles and parts (-382,000), fabricated 

metal products (-109,000), and machinery (-80,000). Employment 

in nondurable goods industries decreased by 416,000, including 

declines in food manufacturing (-86,000), printing and related 

support activities (-79,000), and plastics and rubber products 

(-66,000). 

Employment in the other services industry also declined by 

1.3 million in April, with nearly two-thirds of the loss 

occurring in personal and laundry services (-797,000). 

In April, government employment declined by 980,000; local 

government employment was down by 801,000, partly reflecting 

school closures. Employment in state government education was 

down by 176,000. 

Construction employment decreased by 975,000 in April, with 

large declines in specialty trade contractors (-691,000) and in 

construction of buildings (-206,000). 

Employment in transportation and warehousing fell by 

584,000 over the month, with notable decreases in transit and 

ground passenger transportation (-185,000) and in air 

transportation (-141,000). 

Wholesale trade employment decreased by 363,000 in April, 

reflecting sizable declines in both the durable and nondurable 

goods components. 

Over the month, employment in financial activities fell by 
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262,000, with most of the decline occurring in real estate and 

rental and leasing (-222,000). 

Employment in information fell by 254,000 in April, driven 

largely by a decline in motion picture and sound recording 

industries (-217,000). 

Mining employment decreased by 46,000 over the month, 

mostly in support activities for mining (-33,000). 

Average weekly hours for all private-sector workers showed 

an increase of 0.1 hour in April, after declining by 0.3 hour in 

March. However, in April, there were notable declines in the 

average workweek for manufacturing (-2.1 hours), construction 

(-1.3 hours), and wholesale trade (-1.2 hours). 

Given the large employment decline in March and the extreme 

job cuts in April, one must be cautious when interpreting the 

changes in average weekly hours for all private-sector workers. 

While it is certainly true some employees worked additional 

hours in April, the majority of the increase in average weekly 

hours reflects the disproportionate number of workers with 

shorter workweeks who went off payrolls; their removal put 

upward pressure on the average hours estimate. 

Similarly, our estimates of average hourly earnings for 

April also must be interpreted with extra caution. Average 

hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls 

rose by $1.34 in April to $30.01, following a gain of 15 cents 
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in March. While some workers experienced an increase in pay in 

April, the increase in average hourly earnings reflects the 

disproportionate number of lower-paid workers who went off 

payrolls; their removal put upward pressure on the average 

hourly earnings estimate. 

Turning to the labor market indicators from the household 

survey, the unemployment rate increased by 10.3 percentage 

points to 14.7 percent in April. This is the highest 

unemployment rate and largest single-month change in the history 

of the series (seasonally adjusted data are available back to 

1948). The number of unemployed people increased by 15.9 million 

to 23.1 million. Among the unemployed, a large increase occurred 

among people on temporary layoff; this group increased by 16.2 

million in April to 18.1 million. 

The unemployment rate rose sharply for all of the major 

worker groups in April. The rate was 13.0 percent for adult men, 

15.5 percent for adult women, 31.9 percent for teenagers, 14.2 

percent for Whites, 16.7 percent for Blacks, 14.5 percent for 

Asians, and 18.9 percent for Hispanics. The rates for all of 

these groups, with the exception of Blacks, represent record 

highs for their respective series. 

Among the unemployed, the number of people searching for 

work for less than 5 weeks was 14.3 million, an increase of 10.7 

million from March. These recently unemployed people represented 
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61.9 percent of the unemployed in April. The number of 

unemployed persons who were jobless 5 to 14 weeks rose by 5.2 

million to 7.0 million. The number of people searching for 

work for 27 weeks or more declined slightly to 939,000 over 

the month. 

The labor force participation rate declined by 2.5 

percentage points in April to 60.2 percent, the lowest rate 

since January 1973. Total employment, as measured by the 

household survey, fell by 22.4 million to 133.4 million in 

April. The employment-population ratio, at 51.3 percent, dropped 

by 8.7 percentage points over the month. This is the lowest rate 

and largest over-the-month decline in the history of the series, 

which dates back to 1948. 

The number of persons who usually work full time declined 

by 15.0 million over the month, and the number who usually work 

part time declined by 7.4 million. Part-time workers accounted 

for one-third of the over-the-month employment decline. 

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

economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers) nearly doubled, increasing by 5.1 million to 10.9 

million. The increase reflects a sharp rise in the number of 

people whose hours were cut due to slack work or business 

conditions. 

The number of persons not in the labor force who currently 
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want a job, at 9.9 million, nearly doubled in April. These 

individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not 

actively looking for work during the 4-week period ending with 

the April survey or were unavailable to take a job. The large 

increase in the want a job category reflects the impact of the 

pandemic on the job market, as mandatory business closures, 

stay-at-home orders, and fear of the coronavirus illness kept 

many individuals from engaging in labor market activity in 

April. 

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

wanted a job, 2.3 million were considered marginally attached to 

the labor force, an increase of 855,000 over the month. (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 months.) Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 

attached who believed no jobs were available for them, numbered 

574,000 in April, little changed over the month. 

In addition to the increase in the number of unemployed 

people, there was also an increase in the number of workers who 

were classified as employed but absent from work for the entire 

reference week. As in March, special instructions sent to 

household survey interviewers called for all employed people 

absent from work due to coronavirus-related business closures to 
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be classified as unemployed on temporary layoff. However, not 

all such workers were so classified in April. As is our usual 

practice, no ad hoc actions were taken to reassign survey 

responses; the data were accepted as recorded. If the workers 

who were recorded as employed but absent from work due to “other 

reasons” (over and above the number absent for other reasons in 

a typical April) had been classified as unemployed on temporary 

layoff, the overall unemployment rate would have been almost 5 

percentage points higher than reported (on a not seasonally 

adjusted basis). Additional information is available online at 

www.bls.gov/cps/employment-situation-covid19-faq-april-2020.pdf. 

Summarizing the labor market developments in April, nonfarm 

payroll employment fell by 20.5 million, and the unemployment 

rate increased to 14.7 percent, reflecting the effects on the 

job market of the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to contain 

it.