The Employment Situation: August 1998 — 1998-09-04

Payroll employment rose, and unemployment was unchanged in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 365,000, in part because workers who were off payrolls in July due to strikes and plant shutdowns in automobile-related manufacturing returned to their jobs. The jobless rate remained at 4.5 percent. Since June, the number of unemployed persons has remained essentially unchanged at 6.2 million, and the unemployment rate has held at 4.5 percent. Among the major demographic groups, the jobless rates for adult men (3.7 percent), adult women (4.1 percent), teenagers (15.0 percent), whites (4.0 percent), blacks (9.0 percent), and Hispanics (7.5 percent) were little changed in August. (See tables A-1 and A-2.) The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons declined by 320,000 to 3.5 million. (See table A-4.) Total employment was about unchanged over the month at 131.2 million.