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 

before the 

Joint Economic Committee 

UNITED STATES CONGRESS 

Friday, January 10, 2014

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: 

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and 

unemployment data we released this morning. 

The unemployment rate declined from 7.0 to 6.7 percent in 

December, and nonfarm payroll employment edged up (+74,000). 

Monthly job gains averaged 182,000 in 2013, about the same as in 

2012. In December, employment rose in retail trade and wholesale 

trade but fell in the information industry. 

Incorporating the revisions for October and November, which 

increased employment by 38,000 on net, monthly job gains have 

averaged 172,000 over the past 3 months. 
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Retail trade added 55,000 jobs in December. Job gains 

occurred in food and beverage stores (+12,000), clothing stores 

(+12,000), general merchandise stores (+8,000), and motor 

vehicle and parts dealers (+7,000). Retail trade employment 

increased by an average of 32,000 per month in 2013. 

Wholesale trade employment rose by 15,000 in December. Over 

the past year, wholesale trade added an average of 8,000 jobs 

per month. 

Employment in professional and business services continued 

to trend up in December (+19,000). This industry has added 

637,000 jobs over the past 12 months. Within this industry, 

temporary help services added 40,000 jobs in December. In 

contrast, accounting and bookkeeping services lost 25,000 jobs 

over the month. 

Manufacturing employment continued to trend up in December 

(+9,000). Manufacturing added 77,000 jobs in 2013, compared with 

an increase of 154,000 jobs in 2012. 

Employment in the information industry decreased by 12,000 

in December, reflecting a decline in motion picture and sound 

recording (-14,000). Employment in the motion picture industry 

can be volatile from month to month. Over the year, employment 

in information has shown little net change. 

Construction employment edged down in December (-16,000). 

However, in 2013, the industry added an average of 10,000 jobs 
3 

per month. Employment in nonresidential specialty trade 

contractors declined by 13,000 in December, possibly reflecting 

unusually cold weather in parts of the country. 

Health care employment changed little in December (-6,000). 

Over the past year, job growth in this industry slowed to an 

average of 17,000 per month, compared with an average monthly 

gain of 27,000 in 2012. 

In December, employment in most other major industries 

changed little. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls edged up by 2 cents in December. Over the past 12 

months, average hourly earnings have risen by 42 cents, or 1.8 

percent. From November 2012 to November 2013, the Consumer Price 

Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose by 1.2 percent. 

Turning now to our survey of households, the unemployment 

rate decreased by 0.3 percentage point in December to 6.7 

percent. Over the year, the unemployment rate declined by 1.2 

percentage points, and the number of unemployed persons fell by 

1.9 million. In December, there were 3.9 million unemployed 

persons who had been jobless for 27 weeks or more, little 

changed over the month but down by 894,000 over the past year. 

The labor force participation rate declined to 62.8 percent 

in December. Over the year, this rate declined by 0.8 percentage 

point. The employment-population ratio, at 58.6 percent, was 
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unchanged in December and over the past 12 months. In fact, this 

measure has held at or near this level since late 2009. 

Among those neither working nor looking for work in 

December, 2.4 million were classified as marginally attached to 

the labor force, little changed from a year earlier. These 

individuals wanted a job, were available for 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 917,000 in 

December, down by 151,000 from a year earlier. 

I would like to note that seasonal adjustment factors for 

the household survey are updated each year with the release of 

the December data. Seasonally adjusted estimates going back 5 

years (to January 2009) were subject to revision. 

In summary, the unemployment rate declined from 7.0 to 6.7 

percent in December, and nonfarm payroll employment edged up 

(+74,000). 

My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your 

questions.