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 

Erica L. Groshen 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 148,000 in September, 

and the unemployment rate, at 7.2 percent, changed little. Over 

the prior 12 months, job gains averaged 185,000 per month. In 

September, employment increased in construction, wholesale 

trade, and transportation and warehousing. 

The release of these data comes about 2 weeks later than 

originally scheduled because of the recent partial Federal 

government shutdown. Data collection for the estimates in this 

statement had been completed prior to the shutdown in accordance 

with our normal schedule. However, the processing of some 

estimates and other production activities were delayed due to 

the shutdown. 

Construction added 20,000 jobs in September after 6 months 

of little change. Wholesale trade employment increased by 16,000 

in September. 
2 

Transportation and warehousing employment increased by 

23,000 over the month. This job gain occurred mainly in transit 

and ground passenger transportation (+18,000). 

Professional and business services employment continued to 

trend up in September (+32,000). Job gains in this industry 

averaged 52,000 per month over the prior 12 months. Employment 

in temporary help services continued to trend up in September 

(+20,000). 

Within retail trade, employment rose in building material 

and garden supply stores (+5,000) and automobile dealers 

(+4,000). 

Health care employment was essentially unchanged in 

September (+7,000). Since the beginning of 2013, employment 

growth in health care has averaged 19,000 per month, compared 

with 27,000 per month in 2012. 

In financial activities, credit intermediation lost 8,000 

jobs in September. Within leisure and hospitality, food services 

employment was essentially unchanged (-7,000). Over the prior 12 

months, job growth in food services averaged 28,000 per month. 

Employment in other major industries showed little change 

in September. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 3 cents in September. Over the past 12 months, 

average hourly earnings have risen by 49 cents, or 2.1 percent. 
3 

From August 2012 to August 2013, the Consumer Price Index for 

All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose by 1.5 percent. 

Turning to our survey of households, the unemployment rate, 

at 7.2 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 11.3 

million, were essentially unchanged in September. The jobless 

rate has declined by 0.4 percentage point since June. 

Both the labor force participation rate, at 63.2 percent, 

and the employment-population ratio, at 58.6 percent, were 

unchanged over the month. 

The number of involuntary part-time workers was unchanged 

at 7.9 million in September. These individuals would have 

preferred full-time employment but had their hours cut or were 

unable to find full-time work. 

Among persons who were neither working nor looking for work 

in September, 2.3 million were classified as marginally attached 

to the labor force, down by 215,000 from a year earlier. These 

individuals had not looked for work in the 4 weeks prior to the 

survey but 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 852,000 in September, 

essentially unchanged from a year earlier. 
4 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 148,000 

in September, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 

7.2 percent.