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

Kathleen P. Utgoff

Commissioner

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Friday, October 3, 2003

The unemployment rate held at 6.1 percent in 

September. Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed 

(+57,000) over the month at 129.9 million. 

The pace of job loss in manufacturing eased somewhat. 

In September, factory employment was down by 29,000 

compared with an average monthly drop of 54,000 for the 

prior 12 months. The manufacturing workweek (40.4 hours) 

and factory overtime (4.2 hours) each increased by twotenths of an hour over the month.

Employment in temporary help services rose

(+33,000 in September) for the fifth consecutive month. 

Since April, the industry has added 147,000 jobs. 

Elsewhere in professional and business service industries, 

architectural and engineering services employment increased 

over the month. 
2

In retail trade, employment rose at both motor vehicle 

and parts dealers and in building material and garden 

supply stores. Thus far this year, the monthly pace of job 

growth in the latter industry has accelerated relative to 

2001 and 2002, likely reflecting home building and 

improvement activities. Construction employment continued 

to trend up over the month and, since February, has 

increased by 137,000. 

Employment in the health care industry, typically one 

of the strongest areas of growth, was essentially unchanged 

over the month. With few exceptions, employment in most 

other industries was little changed in September. 

Many labor market measures from the household survey 

showed little movement over the month. The unemployment 

rate remained at 6.1 percent, and the civilian labor force 

and employment were flat. However, the number of 

unemployed who had been searching for work for 27 weeks or 

more rose to 2.1 million. In addition, the number of 

persons working part time because of business and economic 

conditions increased to nearly 5 million. The total count 

of persons at work part time, however, was essentially 

unchanged at 24.0 million. In September, the employmentpopulation ratio was 62.0 percent, down a percentage point 

from a year earlier. 
3

Each fall, we announce the preliminary estimate of the 

next benchmark revision to the payroll survey. The 

benchmark revision is a standard annual procedure that 

adjusts the payroll survey’s sample-based employment

estimates to incorporate universe employment counts.

Preliminary tabulations of first quarter 2003 

employment from state unemployment insurance tax reports--

the principal source of the universe employment counts--

indicate that the estimate of total nonfarm payroll 

employment will require a downward revision of 

approximately 145,000, or one-tenth of one percent, for the 

March 2003 reference month. The historical average for 

benchmark revisions over the past decade has been plus or 

minus three-tenths of one percent. Hence, the payroll 

survey has tracked closely to the universe employment 

counts for this benchmark period. When implemented in 

February 2004 with the release of data for January 2004, 

the benchmark revision will finalize payroll survey 

employment through March 2003 at a slightly lower level 

than the currently published series. 

To summarize the September data released today, 

payroll employment was little changed over the month and 

the unemployment rate remained at 6.1 percent.