The Employment Situation: October 2003 — 2003-11-07

Employment rose in October, and the unemployment rate, at 6.0 percent, was essentially unchanged, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 126,000 in October, following a similar increase (as revised) in September. Job gains occurred in several service industries in October. Manufacturing employment continued to decline, but the rate of job loss has moderated in recent months. The unemployment rate, 6.0 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, 8.8 million, were essentially unchanged in October. Unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (5.6 percent), adult women (5.2 percent), teenagers (17.1 percent), whites (5.1 percent), blacks (11.5 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (7.2 percent)--also were little changed. The unemploy- ment rate for Asians was 6.1 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) In October, 2.0 million unemployed persons had been looking for work for 27 weeks or longer, about the same level as in September.