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

Philip L. Rones

Acting Commissioner

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Friday, November 3, 2006

Employment rose in October and the unemployment rate 

declined to 4.4 percent. The number of nonfarm payroll 

jobs increased by 92,000 in October, following gains of 

148,000 in September and 230,000 in August (as revised). 

Employment continued to trend up in several serviceproviding industries, while manufacturing and construction 

lost jobs over the month. Average hourly earnings 

increased 6 cents, or 0.4 percent.

Job growth continued in professional and business 

services, with a gain of 43,000 in October. Employment 

increased over the month in management and technical 

consulting services and in business support services. 

Health care added 23,000 jobs in October, as gains 

occurred in hospitals and in nursing and residential care 

facilities. Employment in the health care industry has 
2

risen by 302,000 over the year. Employment continued to 

grow over the month in food services and drinking places 

(+27,000). Mining employment rose by 5,000 in October; the 

industry has added 54,000 jobs over the year.

Manufacturing employment fell by 39,000 over the 

month. In October, job losses continued in wood products, 

and employment in motor vehicles and parts manufacturing 

decreased by 15,000. In plastics and rubber products, 

employment was down by 14,000 over the month, largely due 

to a strike. The factory workweek rose by 0.1 hour to 41.2 

hours; overtime was unchanged at 4.3 hours.

Construction lost 26,000 jobs in October. Employment 

among residential specialty trade contractors fell by 

31,000 over the month and has decreased by 99,000 since 

February, reflecting weakness in home building and 

remodeling. 

Average hourly earnings for private production and 

nonsupervisory workers rose 6 cents in October to $16.91, a 

gain of 0.4 percent. Over the year, average hourly 

earnings were up 3.9 percent.

Turning now to data from the survey of households, 

total employment rose and unemployment declined in October. 

The number of unemployed persons edged down to 6.7 million 

over the month, and the unemployment rate declined from 4.6 
3

to 4.4 percent. Jobless rates were down for adult women 

and Hispanics. The number of persons unemployed for 27 

weeks or more fell to 1.1 million in October, as compared 

to 1.4 million a year earlier. At 63.3 percent in October, 

the employment-population ratio was half a percentage point 

higher than a year earlier. 

October 2006 was the final month that information was 

collected in the household survey about persons who 

evacuated from their homes, even temporarily, due to 

Hurricane Katrina. Special questions were added in October 

2005 to provide a snapshot of the labor market activity of 

Katrina evacuees in the immediate aftermath of the storm. 

While the number of evacuees represented in the survey 

varied from month to month, some patterns regarding their 

labor force status were evident. Evacuees who returned to 

live at their pre-hurricane residences were more likely to 

be employed and less likely to be unemployed than evacuees 

who were living elsewhere. 

For example, information gathered in October 2006 

represented 1.1 million persons age 16 and over who had 

evacuated from their August 2005 residences due to 

Hurricane Katrina. About 6 in 10 evacuees were again 

living in their pre-hurricane residences at the time they 

were surveyed. Some 60 percent of these returnees were 
4

employed, while 50 percent of those who were not living in 

their pre-hurricane residences held jobs. The unemployment 

rate of those living in their pre-hurricane residences (7.0 

percent) was lower than the rate for those who were living 

elsewhere (17.9 percent). 

In summary, payroll employment increased by 92,000 in 

October, and the unemployment rate declined to 4.4 percent.