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, November 2, 2018

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 250,000 in October, and 

the unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent. Employment increased 

in health care, in manufacturing, in construction, and in 

transportation and warehousing. 

Incorporating revisions for August and September, which 

offset each other, monthly job gains averaged 218,000 over the 

past 3 months. 

Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on 

October 10, 2018, during the reference periods for both the 

establishment and household surveys. Hurricane Michael had no 

discernible effect on the national employment and unemployment 

estimates for October, and response rates for the two surveys 

were within normal ranges. Regional and state estimates for 

October will be released on November 16th. 
2

In October, health care added 36,000 jobs. Within the 

industry, job gains occurred in hospitals (+13,000) and in 

nursing and residential care facilities (+8,000). Employment in 

ambulatory health care services continued to trend up (+14,000). 

Over the year, employment in health care increased by 323,000. 

Manufacturing added 32,000 jobs in October. Most of this 

increase occurred in the durable goods component (+21,000), with 

a gain of 10,000 jobs in transportation equipment. Over the past 

12 months, manufacturing added 296,000 jobs, the bulk of which 

were in durable goods. 

Employment in construction increased by 30,000 in October 

and by 330,000 over the year. Residential specialty trade 

contractors added 14,000 jobs over the month. 

Transportation and warehousing added 25,000 jobs in 

October. Job growth in the industry has picked up over the past 

3 months. In October, job gains occurred in couriers and 

messengers (+8,000) and in warehousing and storage (+8,000). 

Employment in leisure and hospitality edged up in October 

(+42,000). Employment was unchanged in September, likely 

reflecting the impact of Hurricane Florence. The average job 

gain over these 2 months (+21,000) was the same as the average 

monthly gain in the industry for the 12 months prior to 

September.
3

In October, employment in professional and business 

services continued to trend up (+35,000). Over the year, the 

industry added 516,000 jobs.

Employment in mining also continued to trend up over the 

month (+5,000) and was up by 65,000 over the year. 

Employment in other major industries--including wholesale 

trade, retail trade, information, financial activities, and 

government--showed little change over the month. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls increased by 5 cents in October to $27.30. Over the 

past 12 months, average hourly earnings were up by 3.1 percent. 

From September 2017 to September 2018, the Consumer Price Index 

for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 2.3 percent (on a 

seasonally adjusted basis). 

Turning to measures from the household survey, the 

unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7 percent in October, and 

the number of unemployed people changed little at 6.1 million. 

Over the year, the jobless rate was down by 0.4 percentage 

point, and the number of unemployed decreased by 449,000. 

Among the unemployed, the number who had been searching for 

work for 27 weeks or longer, at 1.4 million, was essentially 

unchanged in October. These long-term unemployed accounted for 

22.5 percent of the total unemployed. 
4

Over the month, the labor force increased by 711,000 and 

the labor force participation rate increased by 0.2 percentage 

point to 62.9 percent. Over the year, the labor force 

participation rate has shown little change. 

In October, the employment-population ratio edged up by 0.2 

percentage point to 60.6 percent. Over the year, the employmentpopulation ratio was up by 0.4 percentage point. 

In October, there were 4.6 million people working part time 

for economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers), about unchanged from the previous month. 

Among those neither working nor looking for work in 

October, 1.5 million were considered marginally attached to the 

labor force, little different from a year earlier. Discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed no 

jobs were available for them, numbered 506,000 in October, also 

little different from a year earlier. (People who are marginally 

attached to the labor force had not looked for work in the 4 

weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were available to 

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

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 250,000 

in October, and the unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent.