The Employment Situation: October 2005 — 2005-11-04

Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed (+56,000) in October, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.0 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Average hourly earnings of production or nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 8 cents over the month. 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, 7.4 million, and the unemployment rate, 5.0 percent, were little changed in October. The unemployment rate has ranged from 4.9 to 5.1 percent since May. The unemployment rates for adult women (4.6 percent), teenagers (15.9 percent), whites (4.4 percent), and blacks (9.1 percent) showed little or no change over the month. The jobless rates for adult men (4.3 percent) and Hispanics or Latinos (5.8 percent) both de- clined from September.