The Employment Situation: October 2002 — 2002-11-01

Both nonfarm payroll employment and the unemployment rate were about un- changed in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job losses in the construction, manufacturing, and help supply industries were offset by gains in a number of other industries, among them finance, real estate, and health services. The number of unemployed persons (8.2 million) and the unemployment rate (5.7 percent) were essentially unchanged in October. The unemployment rate for adult women edged up to 5.2 percent while the rates for the other major worker groups--adult men (5.2 percent), teenagers (14.6 percent), whites (5.1 percent), blacks (9.8 percent), and Hispanics (7.8 percent)--showed little or no change over the month. (See tables A-1 and A-2.) Total employment, as measured by the household survey, edged down in October to 134.9 million, after seasonal adjustment. This followed a large increase in September. The employment-population ratio, which had increased in September, declined to 62.9 percent.