Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation — 2002-09-06

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 Daylight Time. Both the unemployment rate, at 5.7 percent, and nonfarm payroll employment, at 130.8 million, were little changed in August. Payroll employment has risen slightly since April, and the unemployment rate has shown no clear trend. The number of unemployed was 8.1 million in August, little different from the level in the prior month. Among the jobless in August, 2.8 million persons had been unemployed for 15 weeks or more. After steadily rising since May 2001, this measure has declined by 320,000 over the past 2 months. Turning to data from our establishment survey, payroll employment changed little in August (+39,000). Employment rose in services, government, and construction, but these gains were largely offset by losses in manufacturing and retail trade.