The Employment Situation: August 1999 — 1999-09-03

Payroll employment rose modestly in August, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.2 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 124,000, following a much larger gain in July. August job growth was slightly below average in the service-producing sector, and manufacturing and construction both lost jobs. The number of unemployed persons, 5.9 million, and the unemployment rate, 4.2 percent, were essentially unchanged in August. The rate has been 4.2 or 4.3 percent each month since March. Over the month, the jobless rates for adult women (3.7 percent) and blacks (7.8 percent) declined, while the rates for adult men (3.6 percent), teenagers (13.5 percent), whites (3.7 percent), and Hispanics (6.5 percent) showed little or no change. (See tables A-1 and A-2.) The civilian labor force, 139.3 million, and the labor force participation rate, 66.9 percent, were about unchanged from July.