The Employment Situation: August 1995 — 1995-09-01

Nonfarm payroll employment increased in August and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since March, monthly payroll job growth has averaged 100,000 per month, much slower than in 1994 and 1993. Unemployment has changed very little in recent months. Both the number of persons unemployed and the rate of unemployment were about unchanged in August, at 7.4 million and 5.6 percent, respectively. Neither measure has changed markedly since this spring. (See table A-1.) Unemployment rates were about the same in August as in July for adult men (4.8 percent), adult women (5.0 percent), teenagers (17.7 percent), whites (4.8 percent), and blacks (11.3 percent). The rate for Hispanics rose by 1.1 percentage points to 9.9 percent. (See tables A-1 and A-2.) The number of unemployed persons who were on temporary layoff declined in August to 1.0 million, after edging up in June and July.