TEXT

 
 
                              FOR DELIVERY: 9:30 A.M., E.D.T.
                              FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1995
 
 
 
  ___________________________________________________________
  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 time.  ____________________________________________
 
                          Statement of
 
                      Katharine G. Abraham
                          Commissioner
                   Bureau of Labor Statistics
 
                           before the
 
                    Joint Economic Committee
 
                     UNITED STATES CONGRESS
 
                         August 4, 1995
 
 
 
 
  Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
 
 
       I appreciate this opportunity to provide comments on
 
  the labor market data released this morning.
 
       Payroll employment was little changed in July, at 116.6
 
  million, and the unemployment rate, at 5.7 percent, remained
 
  at about the same level as in the prior month.  Payroll job
 
  growth has been considerably weaker in recent months than it
 
  was in the first quarter of the year.
 
       Continued deterioration in manufacturing employment was
 
  a major factor in the weakness of the July payroll job
 
  count.  The number of factory jobs fell by 85,000 over the
 
  month and has declined by a total of 188,000 over the past 4
 
  months.  Job losses in July were widespread throughout both
 
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  durable and nondurable goods industries.  The largest
 
  decline was in transportation equipment, where employment
 
  fell by 20,000; both the motor vehicles and aircraft
 
  industries were affected.  The decline in motor vehicles
 
  reflects temporary plant shutdowns, but the loss in aircraft
 
  manufacturing continues a pattern that has persisted for 5
 
  years.  There also were continuing losses in the textiles,
 
  apparel, chemicals, and rubber and plastics industries.  In
 
  fact, electronics was the only manufacturing industry to
 
  show a job gain in July.
 
       In addition to the job cutbacks, the factory workweek
 
  fell by two-tenths of an hour and has been shortened by
 
  nearly a full hour since January.  Factory overtime edged up
 
  by a tenth of an hour in July, at least temporarily halting
 
  a string of steady declines that began early this year.
 
       Employment in the services industry rose by only 60,000
 
  in July; growth in the industry has been relatively weak
 
  since March.  Over the month, there were lower than average
 
  job gains in business and health services, the two largest
 
  services industry components.  Within business services,
 
  employment in the computer services component has shown the
 
  most strength in recent months, while help supply services
 
  employment has been weak.
 
       Employment in retail trade rose by 54,000 in July and
 
  is up by over 100,000 in the last 2 months, after having
 
  exhibited no net growth in the first 5 months of the year.
 
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  Increases since May have been concentrated in eating and
 
  drinking places.  Wholesale trade also added jobs over the
 
  month.
 
       Average hourly earnings of private production or
 
  nonsupervisory workers were up by 7 cents in July, after
 
  rising by 5 cents in June.  Increases in hourly earnings had
 
  averaged less than 3 cents a month over the year ended in
 
  May.  Because earnings increases are very uneven from month
 
  to month, however, we will need to see additional months'
 
  data before concluding that the underlying growth rate of
 
  this earnings series has changed.
 
       Turning to data from the household survey, the
 
  seasonally adjusted estimates of both total employment and
 
  the labor force rose markedly from their June levels.  As
 
  you may recall, the survey had recorded extremely large
 
  declines in these estimates for May, while the June figures
 
  were little changed.  Looking at the data over a somewhat
 
  longer period, the survey had shown no growth in either
 
  employment or the labor force over the first half of the
 
  year.
 
       The overall unemployment picture has changed very
 
  little in recent months.  The unemployment rate has been in
 
  the 5.6 to 5.8 percent range since April, and the number of
 
  unemployed persons has remained within a narrow range around
 
  7-1/2 million.  There also has been little movement in
 
  unemployment rates for the major demographic groups.  July
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  jobless rates were 4.7 percent for adult men and 5.1 percent
 
  for adult women.  The rate for teenagers rose to 18.2
 
  percent and their employment level declined.  The
 
  unemployment rate among black workers, at 11.1 percent, was
 
  more than twice as high as the rate for whites, at 4.8
 
  percent.  The rate for Hispanics was 8.8 percent.
 
       The number of persons working part time even though
 
  they would have preferred full-time employment totaled 4.4
 
  million in July.  There were also about 1.6 million former
 
  jobseekers who reported that they wanted and were available
 
  to take jobs in July, but were not counted as unemployed
 
  because they were no longer seeking work.  Of these
 
  "marginally attached" workers, about 450,000 said they were
 
  not looking for work because they felt their job prospects
 
  were poor and hence were classified as discouraged workers.
 
       In summary, payroll employment showed very little
 
  growth in July.  While there were small gains in the
 
  service-producing sector, the number of factory jobs fell
 
  for the fourth month in a row.  The jobless rate was about
 
  unchanged at 5.7 percent.
 
 
 
       My colleagues and I will now be glad to respond to any
 
  questions you may have.