The Employment Situation: September 1995 — 1995-10-06

Nonfarm payroll employment rose modestly in September and the unemployment rate remained at 5.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The number of payroll jobs increased by 121,000, although the number of factory jobs continued to decline. The jobless rate has shown little change over the past several months. Both the number of unemployed persons and the unemployment rate were essentially unchanged in September at 7.5 million and 5.6 percent, respectively. These measures have shown very little movement since the spring. In September, there was little or no change in the unemployment rates for adult women and men (each at 4.9 percent), teenagers (17.5 percent), whites (4.8 percent), and blacks (11.3 percent). The rate for Hispanics fell back to 8.9 percent, about the same as the figures for June and July. The number of unemployed persons who were on temporary layoff in September, 874,000, fell for the second straight month.