The Employment Situation: October 2007 — 2007-11-02

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 166,000 in October, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and leisure and hospitality. Manufacturing employment continued to decline, and construction employment was little changed. The number of unemployed persons, at 7.2 million, was essentially unchanged in October, and the unemployment rate held at 4.7 percent. A year earlier, the number of unemployed persons was 6.7 million, and the jobless rate was 4.4 percent. In October, unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (4.3 percent), adult women (4.1 percent), teenagers (15.6 percent), whites (4.2 percent), blacks (8.5 percent), and Hispanics (5.6 percent)--showed little or no change. The unemployment rate for Asians was 3.7 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) Total employment, at 146.0 million, was about unchanged in October.