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

Keith Hall

Commissioner

Bureau of Labor Statistics

before the

Joint Economic Committee

UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Friday, October 3, 2008

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and 

unemployment data we released this morning.

Nonfarm payroll employment declined by 159,000 in 

September. By comparison, from January through August, payroll 

employment decreased by 75,000 a month on average. In 

September, job losses continued in manufacturing, construction,

and retail trade. Mining and health care employment continued 

to trend up. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.1 

percent, following an increase of 0.4 percentage point in 

August. 
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Manufacturing job losses continued in September (-51,000), 

with employment declines occurring throughout much of the

sector. In particular, motor vehicle and parts manufacturers 

shed 18,000 jobs; over the past 12 months, employment in this 

industry has fallen by 140,000. In September, manufacturing 

hours and overtime declined by 0.2 hour and 0.1 hour, 

respectively. 

Construction employment was down by 35,000 over the month. 

Since its peak in September 2006, employment in this industry 

has fallen by 607,000. Eighty-five percent of the job losses 

over this 2-year period have occurred in residential building 

and residential specialty trades.

Mining employment continued to expand, with an increase of 

8,000 in September. Mining has added 241,000 jobs since April 

2003, with most of the growth in oil and gas extraction and

support activities.

In the service-providing sector, retail employment fell by 

40,000 over the month, with the largest job losses occurring 

among department stores and motor vehicle and parts dealers. 

Over the past 4 months, auto and parts dealerships have shed an 

average of 12,000 jobs per month, four times the average decline 

in the first 5 months of the year (-3,000). 

Elsewhere in the service-providing sector, employment in 

financial activities declined by 17,000 in September; securities
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and investment firms accounted for 8,000 of the loss. The 

employment services industry, which includes temporary help 

agencies, continued to contract in September and has lost

303,000 jobs thus far this year.

Health care employment continued to trend up over the 

month. However, the September increase of 17,000 was only about

half the average monthly gain for the prior 12 months (30,000).

Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory 

workers in the private sector edged up by 3 cents, or 0.2

percent, in September. Over the past 12 months, average hourly 

earnings have increased by 3.4 percent. From August 2007 to 

August 2008, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and 

Clerical Workers (CPI-W) rose by 5.9 percent.

Although Hurricane Ike struck the east coast of Texas and 

portions of coastal Louisiana during the September reference 

period for the establishment survey, we believe the storm did 

not substantially impact the payroll employment estimates that 

we released today. For weather conditions to have affected 

payroll employment, people would have had to be off work for the 

entire pay period and not paid for the time missed.

Turning to labor market measures from the survey of 

households, the unemployment rate held at 6.1 percent in 

September; it is 1.4 percentage points higher than a year 

earlier. Among the major worker groups, the jobless rate for 
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adult men rose by 0.5 percentage point over the month to 6.1 

percent, and the rate for blacks increased to 11.4 percent. The 

unemployment rate for adult women declined to 4.9 percent in 

September, partially offsetting a sharp increase in August. 

Approximately 9.5 million persons were unemployed in 

September, little changed from August. Two million of these 

individuals had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, an 

increase of 167,000 over the month and 728,000 over the past 12 

months. 

Both the labor force participation rate, at 66.0 percent,

and the employment-population ratio, at 62.0 percent, were 

little changed over the month. Labor force participation has 

shown virtually no movement over the past 12 months, while the 

employment-population ratio has declined by 0.9 percentage 

point. 

The number of persons working part time who would have 

preferred full-time employment increased by 337,000 in September

to nearly 6.1 million. Over the last 12 months, the number of 

such workers has grown by 1.6 million.

In keeping with standard practice, this month we are 

providing a preliminary estimate of the next benchmark revision 

to nonfarm payroll employment. Each year the Bureau revises, or 

benchmarks, the payroll survey’s sample-based employment 
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estimates to reflect comprehensive employment counts derived 

primarily from state unemployment insurance tax reports. 

Preliminary tabulations of employment from the state tax 

reports indicate the March 2008 payroll employment will require 

a small downward revision of 21,000. The final benchmark will 

be incorporated into the establishment survey data released on 

February 6, 2009. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment declined by 159,000 

in September, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.1 

percent. 

My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your 

questions.