The Employment Situation: December 1994 — 1995-01-06

The nation's job market improved further in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The unemployment rate continued its downward trend, reaching 5.4 percent in December; it has declined by 1.3 percentage points since January 1994. The employer survey showed an increase of 256,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in December; this followed a gain of 488,000 (as revised) in November. Total employment--as measured by the household survey--continued to trend upward. Both surveys recorded large employment gains in 1994. For example, over-the-year growth in the payroll job count was the largest in a decade. Both the number of persons unemployed (7.2 million in December) and the unemployment rate (5.4 percent) continued to trend downward. About 1.6 million fewer persons were unemployed in December than in January 1994. Unemployment rates for both adult women and men each fell slightly in December to 4.7 percent, while the rate for teenagers edged up to 17.2 percent.