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Eastern Standard Time.

                              
                        Statement of
                              
                       Philip L. Rones
                     Acting Commissioner
                 Bureau of Labor Statistics
                              
                  Friday, November 3, 2006

                              

     Employment rose in October and the unemployment rate 
declined to 4.4 percent.  The number of nonfarm payroll 
jobs increased by 92,000 in October, following gains of 
148,000 in September and 230,000 in August (as revised).
Employment continued to trend up in several service-
providing industries, while manufacturing and construction
lost jobs over the month.  Average hourly earnings increased
6 cents, or 0.4 percent.

     Job growth continued in professional and business
services, with a gain of 43,000 in October.  Employment
increased over the month in management and technical
consulting services and in business support services.

     Health care added 23,000 jobs in October, as gains
occurred in hospitals and in nursing and residential care
facilities.  Employment in the health care industry has
risen by 302,000 over the year.  Employment continued to
grow over the month in food services and drinking places
(+27,000).  Mining employment rose by 5,000 in October; the
industry has added 54,000 jobs over the year.

     Manufacturing employment fell by 39,000 over the 
month.  In October, job losses continued in wood products, 
and employment in motor vehicles and parts manufacturing
decreased by 15,000.  In plastics and rubber products,
employment was down by 14,000 over the month, largely due 
to a strike.  The factory workweek rose by 0.1 hour to 41.2
hours; overtime was unchanged at 4.3 hours.

     Construction lost 26,000 jobs in October.  Employment
among residential specialty trade contractors fell by 31,000
over the month and has decreased by 99,000 since February,
reflecting weakness in home building and remodeling.

     Average hourly earnings for private production and
nonsupervisory workers rose 6 cents in October to $16.91, a
gain of 0.4 percent.  Over the year, average hourly earnings
were up 3.9 percent.

     Turning now to data from the survey of households,
total employment rose and unemployment declined in October.
The number of unemployed persons edged down to 6.7 million
over the month, and the unemployment rate declined from 4.6
to 4.4 percent.  Jobless rates were down for adult women and
Hispanics.  The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks or
more fell to 1.1 million in October, as compared to 1.4
million a year earlier.  At 63.3 percent in October, the
employment-population ratio was half a percentage point
higher than a year earlier.

     October 2006 was the final month that information was
collected in the household survey about persons who evacuated 
from their homes, even temporarily, due to Hurricane Katrina.  
Special questions were added in October 2005 to provide a snap-
shot of the labor market activity of Katrina evacuees in the 
immediate aftermath of the storm.  While the number of evacuees 
represented in the survey varied from month to month, some pat-
terns regarding their labor force status were evident.  Evacuees 
who returned to live at their pre-hurricane residences were more 
likely to be employed and less likely to be unemployed than 
evacuees who were living elsewhere.

     For example, information gathered in October 2006
represented 1.1 million persons age 16 and over who had
evacuated from their August 2005 residences due to Hurricane
Katrina.  About 6 in 10 evacuees were again living in their
pre-hurricane residences at the time they were surveyed.
Some 60 percent of these returnees were employed, while 50
percent of those who were not living in their pre-hurricane
residences held jobs.  The unemployment rate of those living
in their pre-hurricane residences (7.0 percent) was lower
than the rate for those who were living elsewhere (17.9
percent).

     In summary, payroll employment increased by 92,000 in
October, and the unemployment rate declined to 4.4 percent.