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 

Erica L. Groshen 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, January 6, 2017

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 156,000 in 

December, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.7 

percent. Job growth occurred in health care and social 

assistance. In 2016, job gains averaged 180,000 per month, 

slower than the average increase of 229,000 per month in 2015. 

Incorporating revisions for October and November, which 

increased nonfarm payroll employment by 19,000 on net, monthly 

job gains have averaged 165,000 over the past 3 months. 

Employment in health care increased by 43,000 in December. 

Health care added an average of 35,000 jobs per month in 2016, 

roughly in line with growth in 2015 (+39,000 per month). 

Ambulatory health care services added 30,000 jobs in December, 

including a gain in outpatient care centers (+7,000). Hospitals 

added 11,000 jobs over the month. 
2 

Employment in social assistance grew by 20,000 in December, 

reflecting a job gain in individual and family services 

(+21,000). In 2016, employment in social assistance rose by 

92,000, down from an increase of 162,000 in 2015. 

Within leisure and hospitality, employment in food services 

and drinking places continued to trend up in December (+30,000). 

Food services and drinking places added 247,000 jobs in 2016, 

about two-thirds of the gain in 2015 (+359,000). 

In December, employment in transportation and warehousing 

continued to trend up (+15,000). Within the industry, couriers 

and messengers added 12,000 jobs. In 2016, transportation and 

warehousing added 62,000 jobs, down from a gain of 110,000 jobs 

in 2015. 

Employment in financial activities continued on an upward 

trend in December (+13,000). This is in line with the average 

monthly gains for the industry over the past 2 years. 

Over the month, employment edged up in manufacturing 

(+17,000), mostly in the durable goods component (+15,000). 

However, since reaching a recent peak in January, employment in 

manufacturing has declined by 63,000. 

Employment in professional and business services was little 

changed in December (+15,000), following an increase of 65,000 

in November. The industry added 522,000 jobs in 2016. 
3 

Employment in other major industries--mining, construction, 

wholesale trade, retail trade, information, and government--

changed little in December. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls increased by 10 cents in December to $26.00, after 

edging down in November (-2 cents). The over-the-year percent 

change in average hourly earnings trended up in 2016, reaching 

2.9 percent in December. From November 2015 to November 2016, 

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

increased by 1.7 percent (on a seasonally adjusted basis). 

Turning to measures from the survey of households, both the 

unemployment rate, at 4.7 percent, and the number of unemployed 

people, at 7.5 million, were little changed in December. 

However, both measures edged down in the fourth quarter of 2016 

after showing little change for most of the year. In December, 

there were 1.8 million unemployed people who had been looking 

for work for 27 weeks or more, little changed over the month but 

down from 2.1 million a year earlier. 

 The labor force participation rate, at 62.7 percent, 

changed little in December. The employment-population ratio was 

59.7 percent for the third month in a row. Both measures held 

fairly steady in 2016. 

 In December, there were 5.6 million people working part 

time for economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-
4 

time workers). This measure was essentially unchanged over the 

month but was down by 459,000 from a year earlier. 

 Among those neither working nor looking for work in 

December, 1.7 million were marginally attached to the labor 

force, little different from a year earlier. Discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, numbered 426,000 in December, 

down by 237,000 from a year earlier. (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.) 

Following our regular annual practice, seasonal adjustment 

factors for the household survey data have been updated with the 

release of December data. Seasonally adjusted estimates going 

back 5 years--to January 2012--were subject to revision. 

 In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 156,000 

in December, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.7 

percent.