The Employment Situation: September 2005 — 2005-10-07

Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed (-35,000) in September, and the unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The measures of employment and unemployment reported in this news release reflect both the impact of Hurri- cane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast in late August, and ongoing labor market trends. Over the 12 months ending in August, payroll employment grew by an average of 194,000 a month and the unemployment rate trended downward. 1 Includes other industries, not shown separately. 2 Quarterly averages and the over-the-month change are calculated using unrounded data. 3 Data relate to private production or nonsupervisory workers. p=preliminary. Both the number of unemployed persons, 7.7 million, and the unemployment rate, 5.1 percent, rose in September. They had been trending down in recent months and remain lower than a year earlier.