October 2000 — 2000-10-06

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. Good morning. I am pleased to offer a few comments to supplement our release of the September employment and unemployment statistics earlier this morning. Payroll employment overall rose moderately in September, even though manufacturing had its second large job loss in a row. The unemployment rate declined to the lower edge of its narrow year-long range of 3.9 to 4.1 percent. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 252,000 in September. This change was boosted by the return of striking communications workers to their jobs, although that return was partly offset by new strikes in manufacturing and local government education. The net effect across the industries was to add 75,000 workers to the over-the-month employment increase. At the same time, 27,000 temporary workers completed their work on Census 2000 and were released during the month.