Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation News Release — 2009-02-06

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 Standard Time. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and unemployment data we released this morning. The labor market continued to weaken dramatically in January. Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 598,000, and the unemployment rate rose from 7.2 to 7.6 percent. January's sharp drop in employment brings job losses to 3.6 million since the start of the recession in December 2007 (as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research). About half of the decline occurred in the past 3 months. Job losses in January were large and widespread across the major industry sectors. Manufacturing employment fell by 207,000 over the month, bringing the job loss in this industry to 1.1 million since the start of the recession.