FOR DELIVERY: 9:30 A.M., E.D.T.
                            FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2001

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the
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understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m.
Eastern Daylight Time.
                              
                        Statement of
                              
                    Katharine G. Abraham
                        Commissioner
                 Bureau of Labor Statistics
                              
                         before the
                              
                  Joint Economic Committee
                              
                   UNITED STATES CONGRESS
                              
                  Friday, September 7, 2001





Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

     I would like to thank you for the opportunity to comment
on the August labor market data we released this morning.

     The labor market continued to weaken in August.  The
jobless total swelled by more than half a million over the
month, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.9 percent, its
highest level in nearly 4 years.  Nonfarm payroll employment
fell by 113,000 in August, bringing net job losses since
March to 323,000.  Manufacturers continued to slash jobs in
August, and there was also a large employment decline in
transportation and public utilities.  Most other major
industries showed little or no change in employment over the
month.

     Manufacturing employment fell by 141,000 in August.
Since July 2000, the industry has lost slightly more than 1
million jobs.  The unemployment rate for manufacturing
workers rose in August to 5.7 percent, up from 3.5 percent a
year earlier.
     
     Employment reductions occurred throughout manufacturing
in August, with almost every component industry losing jobs.
Industrial machinery (-25,000) and electrical equipment
(-19,000), however, continued to account for a
disproportionate share of the overall decline in
manufacturing employment.  Two other manufacturing industries
with particularly large employment declines in August were
apparel (-20,000) and furniture (-10,000).

     Manufacturing's woes continued to affect transportation
employment, which fell substantially in August, most notably
in trucking and warehousing (-8,000).

     Construction employment was little changed over the
month.  This industry, which had added 221,000 jobs in 2000
and continued to expand into the first part of this year, has
shown no net job growth since March.

     Services employment rose by 72,000 in August.  Even with
that gain, however, employment growth in the industry has
averaged only 10,000 per month over the past 5 months,
compared with 93,000 per month in 2000 and 131,000 per month
in 1999.  In August, the overall gain reflected continued
strength in health services (32,000).  There was also an
unusually large gain in social services employment (33,000);
combined with a weak July, this increase put the industry
back on its trend growth path.  Computer services employment
declined by 5,000 in August; this was the first monthly
decline since February 1988, although growth in the industry
had slowed in recent months.  Employment growth also has
slowed in engineering and management services, another
industry that had been expanding rapidly.  Help supply
employment was about unchanged in August, following sharp
declines totaling more than 400,000 since last September.
     
     Turning now to data from our survey of households, the
number of unemployed and the unemployment rate rose sharply
in August, and employment fell by nearly 1 million.  Both the
increase in the number of unemployed persons and the decrease
in employment occurred disproportionately among young workers
(those aged 16 to 24).  Overall, the unemployment rate jumped
four-tenths of a percentage point over the month to 4.9
percent, after having remained in the 4.4- to 4.5-percent
range since April.  While still low by historical standards,
the August rate is the highest posted since September 1997.
Both the number of newly-unemployed persons (those jobless
less than 5 weeks) and the number of long-term unemployed
(those jobless 15 weeks and longer) rose substantially in
August.  Long-term unemployment totaled 1.8 million, up from
1.3 million at the end of last year.  The number of
discouraged workers--those who have stopped seeking work
because of discouragement over their job prospects--was
335,000 in August, somewhat higher than a year earlier.

     In summary, the unemployment rate rose in August to 4.9
percent, its highest level in nearly 4 years.  Job losses
continued to mount in manufacturing, and the employment
situation in most other industries remained weak.



     My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your
questions.