February 1996 — 1996-02-02

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 time. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: I appreciate this opportunity to comment on the January 1996 employment and unemployment data that were released this morning. Payroll employment was down by 201,000 and the unemployment rate edged up to 5.8 percent in January. Extremely heavy snowstorms in the eastern part of the country caused many establishments to close or operate with reduced staff during the payroll survey reference period. Employment estimates from the payroll survey include only workers paid during the reference period. Even for many of the workers who remained on payrolls in January, the weather conditions caused a reduction in their work hours; the average workweek -- a measure of the number of hours paid -- fell by six-tenths of an hour.