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 

William J. Wiatrowski 

Acting Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, October 6, 2017

The unemployment rate declined to 4.2 percent in September.

Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-33,000), after 

adding an average of 172,000 jobs per month over the prior 12 

months. In September, a sharp employment decline in food 

services and drinking places and below-trend growth in some 

other industries likely reflected the impact of Hurricanes Irma 

and Harvey.

The storms caused large-scale evacuations and severe damage 

to many homes and businesses. In the establishment survey, 

employees who are not paid for the pay period that includes the 

12th of the month are not counted as employed. Many employees in 

areas affected by the hurricanes were likely off payrolls during 

the reference pay period for September.

Employment is measured differently in the household survey;

people with jobs are counted as employed even if they miss work

for the entire survey reference week (the week including the 
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12th of the month), regardless of whether they are paid. In 

September, 1.5 million workers had a job but were not at work 

for the entire reference week due to bad weather, the highest 

level for this series over the past 20 years. This series is 

highly sensitive to the timing of weather events and thus does 

not capture the immediate effect of all such events on the job 

market. 

Data collection rates in both the establishment and 

household surveys generally were within normal ranges in 

September, both nationally and in the hurricane-affected states.

Also, no changes were made to either the establishment or 

household survey estimation procedures for the September 

figures. (The national estimates do not include Puerto Rico or 

the U.S. Virgin Islands.) 

Looking at some of the industry detail from the

establishment survey, employment in food services and drinking 

places declined by 105,000 in September. In this industry, a 

large majority of workers are not paid when they are absent from 

work. Hence, if these employees were unable to work during the 

September survey reference pay period because they had 

evacuated, or because their establishments were not open for 

business due to power failures or other effects of the 

hurricanes, they were not included on September payrolls. Over
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the 12 months prior to September, food services and drinking 

places had added an average of 24,000 jobs per month.

Health care employment increased by 23,000 in September, in 

line with the average monthly job gain over the prior 12 months.

Employment in transportation and warehousing increased by 22,000 

in September.

Payroll employment in other major industries, including 

mining, construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail 

trade, information, financial activities, professional and 

business services, and government, changed little over the 

month. It is likely that employment in some of these industries 

was affected by the hurricanes, both in terms of employment 

declines due to the storms and job gains associated with 

recovery and rebuilding efforts. However, it is not possible to 

quantify precisely the net effect on employment in each 

industry.

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls increased by 12 cents in September. The change in 

earnings reflects both ongoing labor market trends and possible 

effects of the hurricanes. Over the past 12 months, average 

hourly earnings have risen by 2.9 percent. From August 2016 to 

August 2017, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers 

(CPI-U) increased by 1.9 percent (on a seasonally adjusted 

basis). 
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Turning now to measures from the household survey, the 

unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 4.2 

percent in September. The number of unemployed persons declined 

by 331,000 to 6.8 million. We do not believe the hurricanes had 

a discernible effect on the national unemployment rate. 

Among the unemployed in September, 1.7 million had been 

searching for work for 27 weeks or more. These long-term 

unemployed accounted for 25.5 percent of the total unemployed. 

The labor force participation rate, at 63.1 percent, 

changed little in September and has shown little movement over 

the past year. The employment-population ratio rose by 0.3 

percentage point over the month to 60.4 percent and is up by 0.6 

percentage point over the year.

Among employed people, the number working part time for 

economic reasons, also referred to as involuntary part-time

workers, changed little in September at 5.1 million.

Among those neither working nor looking for work in 

September, 1.6 million people were marginally attached to the 

labor force, 275,000 lower than a year earlier. Discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, numbered 421,000 in September, 

down by 132,000 from a year earlier. (People who are marginally 

attached to the labor force had not looked for work in the 4 
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weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were available for 

work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 months.) 

Before summarizing, I would like to recognize the 

extraordinary efforts of our data collectors in gathering 

information from sample establishments and households in the 

areas affected by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. Their extra 

efforts helped make it possible to obtain these important data 

on the September labor market.

In summary, the unemployment rate declined to 4.2 percent 

in September, and nonfarm payroll employment changed little 

(-33,000). It is likely that the payroll employment estimates 

for September were lower due to the effects of Hurricanes Irma 

and Harvey. We may learn more about the hurricanes’ impact when 

state employment and unemployment estimates become available on 

October 20, 2017.