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, September 2, 2016

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 151,000 in August, 

and the unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent. Employment 

continued to trend up in several service-providing industries. 

Incorporating revisions for June and July, which reduced 

nonfarm payroll employment by 1,000 on net, monthly job gains 

have averaged 232,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 months 

prior to August, employment growth averaged 204,000 per month. 

Employment in food services and drinking places continued 

to trend up in August (+34,000). Over the year, the industry has 

added 312,000 jobs. 

The social assistance industry added 22,000 jobs in August, 

mostly in individual and family services (+17,000). 

Employment in professional and technical services edged up 

by 20,000 in August, roughly in line with the average monthly 

gain over the prior 12 months (+24,000). 
2 

Employment in financial activities continued on an upward 

trend in August (+15,000), with a gain of 6,000 in securities, 

commodity contracts, and investments. The financial activities 

sector has added 167,000 jobs over the year. 

Health care employment continued to trend up over the month 

(+14,000), but at a pace well below the average monthly gain 

over the prior 12 months (+39,000). In August, hospitals added 

11,000 jobs, and employment in ambulatory health care services 

trended up (+13,000). A job loss in nursing and residential care 

facilities (-9,000) offset a gain in July. 

Mining employment continued on a downward trend in August 

(-4,000). Although job losses have moderated in the last 3 

months, employment in mining has fallen by 223,000 since a peak 

in September 2014. 

Employment changed little over the month in several other 

industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale 

trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, temporary 

help services, and government. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls were up by 3 cents in August to $25.73. Over the past 

12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.4 percent. 

From July 2015 to July 2016, the Consumer Price Index for All 

Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 0.9 percent (on a 

seasonally adjusted basis). 
3 

In August, most major labor market measures from the survey 

of households continued to show little or no change. The 

unemployment rate was 4.9 percent for the third consecutive 

month and has shown little net movement during the past year. 

There were 7.8 million unemployed persons in August, about the 

same as a year earlier. In August, 2.0 million unemployed 

persons had been searching for work for 27 weeks or more; these 

long-term unemployed accounted for 26.1 percent of the 

unemployed, little changed from a year earlier. 

Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.8 percent, 

and the employment-population ratio, at 59.7 percent, were 

unchanged over the month. Among the employed, 6.1 million worked 

part time for economic reasons in August, little changed from 

July. (These involuntary part-time workers would prefer to work 

full time, but had their hours cut or were unable to find fulltime jobs.) 

Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 

in August, 1.7 million were marginally attached to the labor 

force, about the same as a year earlier. Discouraged workers, a 

subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were 

available for them, numbered 576,000 in August, also about the 

same as a year earlier. (Marginally attached to the labor force 

refers to those who had not looked for work in the 4 weeks prior 
4 

to the survey but wanted a job, were available for work, and had 

looked for a job within the last 12 months.) 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 151,000 

in August, and the unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent.