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, November 6, 2015

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 271,000 in October, and 

the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.0 percent. 

Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health 

care, retail trade, food services and drinking places, and 

construction. 

Incorporating revisions for August and September, which 

increased nonfarm payroll employment by 12,000, on net, monthly 

job gains averaged 187,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 

months prior to October, employment growth averaged 230,000 per 

month. 

Employment in professional and business services rose by 

78,000 in October, compared with an average monthly gain of 

52,000 over the prior 12 months. In October, job gains occurred 

in administrative and support services (+46,000), computer 
 

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systems design and related services (+10,000), and architectural 

and engineering services (+8,000). 

The health care industry added 45,000 jobs in October. Over 

the month, employment rose by 27,000 in ambulatory health care 

services (which includes offices of physicians and home health 

care) and by 18,000 in hospitals. Over the year, health care has 

added 495,000 jobs, with about a third of the gain in hospitals. 

Retail trade employment grew by 44,000 in October, compared 

with an average monthly gain of 25,000 over the prior 12 months. 

In October, job gains occurred in clothing and accessories 

stores (+20,000), general merchandise stores (+11,000), and 

automobile dealers (+6,000). 

Within the leisure and hospitality industry, employment in 

food services and drinking places rose by 42,000 in October and 

by 368,000 over the year. 

Construction added 31,000 jobs in October, following little 

change in recent months. Over the month, nonresidential 

specialty trade contractors added 21,000 jobs. Over the past 12 

months, construction employment has increased by 233,000. 

Employment in mining continued to trend down in October 

(-5,000). Since reaching a recent peak in December 2014, 

employment in this industry has declined by 109,000. 

Manufacturing employment was unchanged over the month and has 

shown little net change thus far this year. 
 

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Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 9 cents in October to $25.20, following little 

change (+1 cent) in September. Over the past 12 months, average 

hourly earnings have risen by 2.5 percent. From September 2014 

to September 2015, the Consumer Price Index for all Urban 

Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged (on a seasonally adjusted 

basis). 

Turning to measures from the household survey, both the 

unemployment rate, at 5.0 percent, and the number of unemployed 

persons, at 7.9 million, were essentially unchanged in October. 

These measures were down by 0.7 percentage point and 1.1 

million, respectively, over the year. Among the unemployed in 

October, 26.8 percent had been jobless for 27 weeks or longer. 

The labor force participation rate, at 62.4 percent, was 

unchanged in October, after declining by 0.2 percentage point in 

September. The employment-population ratio was little changed in 

October, at 59.3 percent, and has shown little movement over the 

past year. 

The number of persons employed part time for economic 

reasons edged down to 5.8 million in October. These individuals, 

also referred to as involuntary part-time workers, would have 

preferred full-time employment but were working part time 

because their hours had been cut back or because they were 

unable to find full-time work. The number of persons working 
 

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part time for economic reasons has declined by 1.2 million over 

the past year. 

Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 

in October, 1.9 million were classified as marginally attached 

to the labor force, down from 2.2 million a year earlier. These 

individuals had not looked for work in the 4 weeks prior to the 

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

for a job within the last 12 months. The number of discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, was 665,000 in October, little 

different from a year earlier. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 271,000 

in October, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged 

at 5.0 percent.