FOR DELIVERY: 9:30 A.M., E.D.T.
                            FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2000

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
                    Katharine G. Abraham
                        Commissioner
                 Bureau of Labor Statistics
                              
                     Friday, May 5, 2000
                              

     Good morning.  I am pleased to have this opportunity to
comment on the employment and unemployment estimates that we
released this morning.

     The unemployment rate, as measured by our household
survey, edged down to 3.9 percent in April, the first time it
has been below 4.0 percent since January 1970.  Nonfarm
payroll employment, as measured by our establishment survey,
rose by 340,000 in April, boosted again by the hiring of
temporary workers for Census 2000.  Excluding these short-
term jobs, employment increased by 267,000 in April.  Private
payroll employment growth has averaged 222,000 per month thus
far this year, compared with 198,000 per month for all of
1999.

     The services industry added 121,000 jobs in April, in
line with its monthly average for the prior 12 months.
Employment in business services rose by 55,000 over the
month, buoyed by a very large increase in help supply
services (46,000).  Following 2 months of particularly
sluggish growth, amusement and recreation services posted a
gain of 15,000 jobs.  Employment in motion pictures also
rebounded in April, offsetting losses incurred over the
previous 2 months.  Employment in hotels and other lodging
places grew substantially for the second consecutive month,
and job growth continued in educational and social services.
Health services employment also rose in April, but the gain
was somewhat below its recent monthly average.  Employment
growth in engineering and management services was weak over
the month, and legal services posted a small decline.

     Retail trade employment rose by 119,000 in April.  Most
of the net gain was in eating and drinking places, where
employment rose by 80,000, following 3 months with little
change.  Employment also increased substantially over the
month in food stores; even so, there has been practically no
net employment gain in this industry during the last year.  A
job decline in building materials and garden supply stores,
after seasonal adjustment, followed an unusually large
increase in March.  Employment in general merchandise stores
was flat in April, following job losses that have totaled
33,000 since the employment peak in April 1999.

     Transportation employment increased by 27,000 over the
month.  Growth was particularly strong in trucking and
warehousing (10,000) and in local and interurban passenger
transit (6,000).  Communications posted a small job loss over
the month.

     Within the finance, insurance, and real estate industry,
finance employment rose by 6,000 in April, but the monthly
average gain thus far in 2000 has been well below that for
all of 1999.  The number of jobs in security brokerages
increased by 8,000 in April.

     Government employment rose by 107,000 over the month,
largely reflecting 73,000 additional temporary workers hired
for the decennial census.  Local education employment
increased by 33,000 in April (seasonally adjusted), following
weak growth over the first quarter of the year.

     In April, manufacturing employment rose slightly, after
showing no net growth over the first quarter.  Within durable
goods, electrical equipment employment grew by 8,000; since
reaching a low point last June, the industry has added 28,000
jobs.  Fabricated metals also posted a job gain in April.
Within nondurable manufacturing, an April employment increase
in food products was offset by losses in rubber products and
apparel.

     Over the month, factory overtime rose by 0.3 hour to 4.9
hours.  The factory workweek, at 42.1 hours, also rose in
April.

     In mining, employment rose by 4,000, all of which was in
oil and gas extraction.  Since reaching a low point last
summer, oil and gas has added 20,000 jobs.

     Elsewhere in the goods-producing sector, construction
employment declined by 55,000 in April, after seasonal
adjustment.  This followed an unusually large March increase,
which, because of a late survey week, likely captured some of
April's growth.  Since last September, construction has added
an average of about 32,000 jobs per month.

     Average hourly earnings of private production or
nonsupervisory workers rose by 6 cents in April to $13.64,
following an average monthly rise of nearly 5 cents in the
first quarter.  Over the year, average hourly earnings have
risen by 3.8 percent.

     Turning again to the data from our survey of households,
the jobless rate edged down to 3.9 percent in April, the
lowest since January 1970 when it also was 3.9 percent.
There was little change in the unemployment rates for most of
the major demographic groups over the month.  The jobless
rate for Hispanics, however, declined to 5.4 percent in
April, a historical low.  The unemployment rate for blacks,
at 7.2 percent, also is a record low.  (The unemployment
series for Hispanics begins in 1973 and that for blacks in
1972.)

     Total civilian employment rose in April, by 547,000, and
the employment-population ratio climbed to a record 64.9
percent.  About 5.7 percent of employed persons held more
than one job in April (not seasonally adjusted), little
different from a year earlier.

     In summary, the labor market continued to show strength
in April.  Payroll employment expanded by 340,000 over the
month and the jobless rate drifted down to 3.9 percent.


     My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your
questions.