Transmission of material in this statement is embargoed until 

8:30 a.m. (ET) August 7, 2020. 

Statement of 

William W. Beach 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, August 7, 2020

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 1.8 million in 

July, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.9 percentage point 

to 10.2 percent. These improvements reflect the continued 

resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to 

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

In July, employment rose in several major industries, with 

the largest gains in leisure and hospitality, government, retail 

trade, professional and business services, other services, and 

health care. 

The rate of recovery in the labor market slowed in July, as 

job growth over the month was less than half that for June. As 

of July, total nonfarm employment is 12.9 million, or 8.4 

percent, lower than in February, before the pandemic crisis 

unfolded in many parts of the United States. Similarly, although 

unemployment continued to fall in July, the unemployment rate 
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and the number of unemployed people are up by 6.7 percentage 

points and 10.6 million, respectively, since February. 

The response rate for the household survey continued to be 

adversely affected by pandemic-related issues. The response rate 

for the establishment survey was above normal for July, 

reflecting a longer-than-average collection period. The impact 

of the pandemic on the household and payroll surveys is detailed 

in the July Employment Situation news release and accompanying 

materials (see www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm). For 

both surveys, we were still able to obtain estimates that meet 

BLS standards for accuracy and reliability. 

Taking a closer look at the July payroll data, employment 

in leisure and hospitality increased by 592,000, accounting for 

about one-third of the over-the-month growth in total nonfarm 

employment. Within the industry, food services and drinking 

places added 502,000 jobs over the month, following gains of 1.5 

million each in May and June. Despite gains over the past 3 

months, employment in food services and drinking places is 2.6 

million lower than in February. Elsewhere in leisure and 

hospitality, employment in amusements, gambling, and recreation 

increased by 100,000 in July. 

Employment in government rose by 301,000 in July but is 1.1 

million lower than its February level. Typically, public-sector 

education employment declines in July before seasonal 
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adjustment. This year, however, employment declines occurred 

earlier than usual due to the pandemic, resulting in unusually 

large July employment increases in local government education 

(+215,000) and state government education (+30,000) after 

seasonal adjustment. Federal government employment increased by 

27,000 over the month, reflecting the hiring of temporary 

workers for the 2020 Census. The U.S. Postal Service lost jobs 

over the month (-5,000). 

In July, retail trade employment increased by 258,000, 

following increases of 827,000 in June and 386,000 in May. 

Despite these gains, employment in retail trade remains 913,000 

below its February level. Employment rose in most retail 

industries in July, although almost half of the gain occurred in 

clothing and accessories stores (+121,000). By contrast, 

employment declined in the component of general merchandise 

stores that includes warehouse clubs and supercenters (-64,000)

and in food and beverage stores (-19,000). 

In July, professional and business services added 170,000 

jobs, with most of the gain occurring in temporary help services 

(+144,000). By contrast, there were job losses in management of 

companies and enterprises (-12,000). Since February, employment 

in professional and business services is down by 1.6 million. 

Employment in the other services industry increased by 

149,000 in July, with personal and laundry services accounting 
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for most of the gain (+119,000). Employment in other services is 

627,000 lower than in February. 

In July, health care added 126,000 jobs, with increases in 

offices of dentists (+45,000), hospitals (+27,000), and offices 

of physicians (+26,000). Elsewhere in health care, job losses 

continued over the month in nursing and residential care 

facilities (-28,000). Employment in health care is down by 

797,000 since February.

Employment in social assistance increased by 66,000 in 

July, with gains in child day care services (+45,000) and in 

emergency and other relief services (+6,000). Employment in 

social assistance is 460,000 lower than in February. 

Transportation and warehousing added 38,000 jobs in July, 

following an increase of 87,000 in June. Although job growth has 

occurred over the past 2 months, transportation and warehousing 

has lost 470,000 jobs since a recent employment peak in January. 

In July, job gains occurred in transit and ground passenger 

transportation (+20,000), air transportation (+16,000), and 

couriers and messengers (+9,000). 

In July, manufacturing employment increased by 26,000, 

after increases of 357,000 in June and 240,000 in May. Despite 

recent job gains, employment is down by 740,000 since February. 

In July, an employment gain in motor vehicles and parts 

(+39,000) was partially offset by losses in fabricated metals 
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(-11,000), machinery (-7,000), and computer and electronic 

products (-6,000). 

Employment in financial activities rose by 21,000 in July, 

with most of the gain occurring in real estate and rental and 

leasing (+15,000). Financial activities employment is 216,000 

lower than its February level. 

In July, construction employment changed little (+20,000)

but is 444,000 lower than in February. 

Mining continued to lose jobs in July (-7,000). The 

industry has shed 127,000 jobs since a recent peak in January 

2019, although nearly three-fourths of the decline has occurred 

since February 2020. 

Average weekly hours for all private-sector workers fell by 

0.1 hour in July. The average workweek for manufacturing rose by 

0.7 hour in July. One should continue to be cautious when 

interpreting changes in the workweek at the total private level. 

In particular, large employment changes in industries with 

shorter- or longer-than-average workweeks can complicate monthly 

comparisons of average weekly hours. 

Similarly, changes in average hourly earnings in recent 

months must be interpreted with caution. Average hourly earnings 

of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 7 

cents in July to $29.39, following large changes in recent 

months. 
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Turning to the labor market indicators from the household 

survey, the unemployment rate declined by 0.9 percentage point 

to 10.2 percent in July, and the number of unemployed people 

decreased by 1.4 million to 16.3 million. Both measures have 

decreased for 3 consecutive months, but remain much higher than 

in February, before the pandemic. 

As in May and June, the July decrease in unemployment was 

driven primarily by a decline among people on temporary layoff 

(-1.3 million). The number of permanent job losers, which had 

increased by 1.6 million over the prior 4 months, was 

essentially unchanged at 2.9 million in July.

The unemployment rates fell in July for adult men (9.4 

percent), adult women (10.5 percent), teenagers (19.3 percent), 

Whites (9.2 percent), Asians (12.0 percent), and Hispanics (12.9 

percent). The rate for Blacks (14.6 percent) was little changed. 

Among the unemployed, the number of people searching for 

work for less than 5 weeks increased by 364,000 to 3.2 million 

in July. The number of unemployed people who were jobless 5 to 

14 weeks fell by 6.3 million to 5.2 million. The number of 

people who were jobless 15 to 26 weeks increased by 4.6 million 

to 6.5 million. The number of people searching for work for 27 

weeks or more was little changed at 1.5 million.

The labor force participation rate, at 61.4 percent, was 

little changed in July, following increases in the prior 2 
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months. Total employment, as measured by the household survey, 

increased by 1.4 million over the month to 143.5 million. The 

employment-population ratio rose by 0.5 percentage point to 55.1 

percent in July, following increases of 1.8 percentage points in 

June and 1.5 percentage points in May. However, the ratio 

remains 6.0 percentage points lower than in February. 

The number of people who usually work part time increased 

by 803,000 in July to 24.0 million, while the number who usually 

work full time was little changed at 119.5 million. 

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

economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers) decreased by 619,000 to 8.4 million, reflecting a 

decline in the number of people whose hours were cut due to 

slack work or business conditions. The July decline in 

involuntary part-time workers follows a decrease of 1.6 million 

in June. The number of workers affected by this type of 

underemployment in July was 4.1 million higher than its February 

level. 

The number of people not in the labor force who currently 

want a job declined by 463,000 in July to 7.7 million. This 

measure remains 2.8 million higher than in February. 

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

wanted a job, 2.0 million were considered marginally attached to 

the labor force, down by 492,000 over the month. (People who are 
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marginally attached to the labor force had not actively 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 

665,000 in July, essentially unchanged over the month. 

As has been the case since March, household survey 

interviewers were instructed in July to classify employed 

persons absent from work due to temporary, coronavirus-related 

business closures or cutbacks as unemployed on temporary layoff. 

BLS and Census Bureau analyses of the underlying data suggest 

that this group still may include some workers affected by the 

pandemic who should have been classified as unemployed on 

temporary layoff. However, the share of responses that may have 

been misclassified was much smaller in June and July than in 

prior months. 

For March through June, BLS published an estimate of what 

the unemployment rate would have been had misclassified workers 

been included. Repeating this same approach, the overall July 

unemployment rate would have been about 1 percentage point 

higher than reported. However, this represents the upper bound 

of our estimate of misclassification and probably overstates the 

size of the misclassification error. BLS continues to conduct 

research on this issue. Additional information is available 
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online at www.bls.gov/covid19/employment-situation-covid19-faqjuly-2020.htm.

Summarizing the labor market developments in July, nonfarm 

payroll employment increased by 1.8 million, and the 

unemployment rate declined to 10.2 percent.