The Employment Situation: November 1994 — 1994-12-02

Employment expanded further in November and unemployment continued to fall, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The unemployment rate, at 5.6 percent, was down 0.2 percentage point over the month and has declined by 1.1 points since January. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 350,000 in November, with noteworthy gains in the services, construction, and manufacturing industries. Average hourly earnings in the private sector decreased slightly, following a marked rise in October. Both the number of unemployed persons and the unemployment rate declined in November. At 5.6 percent, the jobless rate has fallen by half a percentage point since August and by 1.1 points since January. The number of persons unemployed has dropped by 1.4 million since January to 7.3 million. (See table A-1.) The unemployment rates for adult men (4.9 percent) and teenagers (15.3 percent) declined over the month.