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 7, 2014

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 214,000 in October, 

and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 percent. Employment 

rose in food services and drinking places, retail trade, and 

health care. 

Incorporating revisions for August and September, which 

increased total nonfarm payroll employment by 31,000, monthly 

job increases have averaged 224,000 over the past 3 months. In 

the 12 months prior to October, employment growth averaged 

222,000 per month. 

In the service-providing sector, food services and drinking 

places added 42,000 jobs in October, compared with an average 

monthly gain of 26,000 over the prior 12 months. 

Employment in retail trade increased by 27,000 in October. 

Job gains occurred in general merchandise stores (+12,000) and 

automobile dealers (+4,000). 
2 

Health care employment grew by 25,000 in October, following 

a similar-sized increase in September. Over the year, health 

care has added 257,000 jobs. Within the industry, ambulatory 

health care contributed 19,000 to the over-the-month job growth. 

Employment in professional and business services continued 

to trend up over the month (+37,000). Over the prior 12 months, 

job gains in the industry averaged 56,000 per month. In October, 

employment continued on an upward trend in temporary help 

services and in computer systems design and related services 

(+15,000 and +7,000, respectively). 

Employment in transportation and warehousing also continued 

to trend up in October (+13,000). 

Turning to the goods-producing sector, manufacturing 

employment continued trending up in October (+15,000), with 

over-the-month gains occurring in machinery (+5,000), furniture 

and related products (+4,000), and semiconductors and electronic 

components (+2,000). 

Construction employment also continued on an upward trend 

in October (+12,000). Within the industry, employment among 

residential specialty trade contractors edged up by 10,000. Over 

the year, construction has gained 231,000 jobs. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 3 cents to $24.57 in October. Over the 12 

months ending in October, average hourly earnings grew by 2.0 
3 

percent. From September 2013 to September 2014, the Consumer 

Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.7 

percent. 

Turning to measures from the survey of households, the 

unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 percent in October. Since 

the beginning of the year, the jobless rate is down by 0.8 

percentage point. 

In October, the number of unemployed persons edged down to 

9.0 million. The number of long-term unemployed (those 

unemployed 27 weeks or more) was little changed over the month, 

at 2.9 million. 

The labor force participation rate was 62.8 percent in 

October and has been essentially flat since April. The 

employment-population ratio rose in October to 59.2 percent. 

In October, the number of people working part time for 

economic reasons was 7.0 million, about unchanged over the 

month. (These individuals, also referred to as involuntary parttime workers, would have preferred full-time employment, but had 

their hours cut or were unable to find full-time work.) 

Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 

in October, 2.2 million were classified as marginally attached 

to the labor force, little changed over the year. (These 

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

survey but wanted a job, were available for work, and had looked 
4 

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 770,000 in October, also 

little changed over the year. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 214,000 

in October, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 percent.