Consumer Trends
Nonfarm payroll employment was basically unchanged in August, and the unemployment rate remained at 4.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported Sept. 7, 2007.
Unemployment
The number of unemployed and the unemployment rate remained at 7.1 million and 4.6 percent, respectively, in August. Overall jobless rates for the major workers groups were as follows:
| • |
Adult men—4.1 percent. |
| • |
Adult women—4.1 percent. |
| • |
Teenagers—16.1 percent. |
| • |
Whites—4.2 percent. |
| • |
Blacks—7.7 percent. |
| • |
Hispanics—5.5 percent. |
| • |
Asians—3.4 percent, not seasonally adjusted. |
 Total unemployment and the labor force
The civilian labor force decreased to 152.9 million and the labor force participation rate declined to 65.8 percent in August. This was due in large part to a drop in labor force participation among teenagers, with a drop in participation rate of 39.7 percent. Total employment (145.8 million), and the employment-population rate (62.8 percent), both showed little chang over the month. The total number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (4.5 million in August), was 359,000 higher than in August 2006. This category includes persons who indicated they would like to work full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back.
Persons not in the labor force
Nearly 1.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in August, which is 227,000 less than a year earlier. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime during the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed since they had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there were 392,000 discouraged workers in August, which is only a slight change from a year earlier.
For more information, please visit the BLS Web site. |
