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                        Statement of
                              
                       Philip L. Rones
                     Deputy Commissioner
                 Bureau of Labor Statistics
                              
                   Friday, August 3, 2007


     Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend up in
July (+92,000), and the unemployment rate was essentially
unchanged at 4.6 percent.  Over the first 7 months of 2007,
job growth has averaged 136,000 per month, compared with an
average monthly gain of 189,000 in 2006.  In July,
employment rose in several service-providing industries and
was little changed in the goods-producing industries.
Average hourly earnings increased by 6 cents, or 0.3
percent.

     Employment in health care and social assistance
continued to increase in July.  The health care industry
added 36,000 jobs over the month and 377,000 over the year.
In July, employment gains occurred in doctors' offices, home
health care, and hospitals.  Over the year, social
assistance employment rose by 99,000.

     Within financial activities, credit intermediation
added 11,000 jobs in July, offsetting a decline of similar
magnitude in June.  On net, employment in credit
intermediation has been little changed in 2007.  In
contrast, both the insurance and securities industries have
continued to add jobs.

     Food services employment continued to expand in July,
rising by 22,000.  Job gains in the industry have averaged
29,000 per month in 2007, about the same as the average
monthly increase in 2006.  Employment in computer systems
design increased by 15,000 in July.  The industry has added
55,000 jobs thus far in 2007.  Wholesale trade employment
continued to trend up in July.
     
     Elsewhere in the service-providing sector, employment
was about unchanged in both retail trade and information.
Temporary help services employment continued on a downward
trend; thus far in 2007, employment in the industry has
declined by 52,000.
     
     In the goods-producing sector, construction employment
was little changed in July.  Since its most recent peak in
September 2006, employment in the industry has declined by
75,000.  Mining employment continued to trend up in July.

     Manufacturing employment was flat overall and across
virtually all of its component industries in July.  The
factory workweek and overtime hours held at 41.3 and 4.2
hours, respectively.

     Average hourly earnings for private production and
nonsupervisory workers increased by 6 cents, or 0.3 percent,
in July to $17.45.  This increase follows 7-cent gains in
May and June.  Over the year, average hourly earnings were
up by 3.9 percent.

     Most labor market measures from our survey of
households showed little or no change in July.  Both the
unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were
essentially unchanged.  The jobless rate, at 4.6 percent,
has held in a narrow range of 4.4 to 4.6 percent since last
September.  There was, however, some change in the
composition of the unemployed in July.  The number of job
losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by
253,000 to 3.6 million.  There also was a sizable increase
in the number of unemployed persons who had been jobless for
27 weeks or more.  As a result, their share of the
unemployed rose from 16.2 percent in June to 18.4 percent in
July.

     Over the month, the labor force participation rate
remained at 66.1 percent.  The employment-population ratio,
at 63.0 percent, was essentially unchanged, but was 0.4
percentage point below its recent high of 63.4 percent in
December 2006.
     
     In summary, nonfarm payroll employment (+92,000)
continued to trend up in July, and the unemployment rate was
essentially unchanged at 4.6 percent.