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, August 5, 2005 

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 207,000 in July, 

and the unemployment rate held at 5.0 percent. Over the 

year, payroll employment has increased by 2.2 million, of 

which 2.0 million was in the private sector. In July, job 

gains occurred in many service-providing industries. 

 Retail trade employment grew by 50,000 in July, with 

gains widespread among the component industries. 

Employment in retail trade has increased by 352,000 since 

its recent low in June 2003. In July, employment rose in 

clothing and clothing accessories stores and in building 

material and garden supply stores. Automobile dealers also 

added jobs, as special incentives to buyers raised sales 

volume. 

 Employment in food services and drinking places 

increased by 30,000 over the month and has expanded by 
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262,000 since July 2004. This industry accounted for the 

vast majority of the job growth in leisure and hospitality, 

both over the month and over the year. 

 Health care employment rose by 29,000 in July and has 

increased by 256,000 over the year. Over the month, job 

growth continued in hospitals, nursing and residential care 

facilities, and ambulatory health care services (which 

includes doctors’ offices and outpatient clinics). 

 Elsewhere in the service-providing sector, employment 

increased by 23,000 in professional and technical services. 

Job gains continued over the month in architectural and 

engineering services and in management and technical 

consulting services. Financial activities employment also 

continued to grow (21,000). Within finance, employment in 

credit intermediation remained on an upward trend, 

increasing by 93,000 over the year. Real estate employment 

rose by 10,000 over the month and by 54,000 over the year. 

In July, temporary help services employment was flat and 

has shown little net change since April. 

 In the goods-producing sector, construction employment 

continued to trend up. Thus far this year, job gains in 

construction have averaged 21,000 per month, about in line 

with the average monthly increase during 2004. Employment 

in manufacturing was flat in July. A decline in motor 
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vehicles and parts manufacturing (-11,000) reflected 

larger-than-normal shutdowns for annual retooling. The 

factory workweek was unchanged at 40.4 hours in July; 

factory overtime rose by 0.1 hour to 4.5 hours per week. 

 Average hourly earnings of private production or 

nonsupervisory workers rose by 6 cents over the month to 

$16.13, following a 4-cent increase in June. Over the 

year, average hourly earnings grew by 2.7 percent. 

 Looking at some of our measures obtained from the 

survey of households, the unemployment rate remained at 5.0 

percent in July, down from 5.5 percent a year earlier. The 

unemployment rate for blacks declined from 10.3 to 9.5 

percent over the month. Jobless rates for most other major 

worker groups showed little or no change in July but 

several have declined over the year. For instance, the 

rate for Hispanics fell by 1.3 percentage points over the 

past 12 months. The number of unemployed persons, at 7.5 

million, was little changed over the month but was down by 

687,000 over the year. 

 In July, both the number of employed persons and the 

civilian labor force rose. The employment-population 

ratio--the proportion of the civilian population age 16 and 

over that is employed--is up by half a percentage point 

since February. 
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To summarize the data for July released today, 

employment increased over the month, with widespread gains 

in the service-providing sector. The unemployment rate 

held at 5.0 percent.