The Employment Situation: November 2007 — 2007-12-07

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend up in November (94,000), and the unemployment rate held at 4.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job growth continued in professional and technical services, health care, and food services. Employment continued to decline in manufacturing and also fell in several housing-related industries, including construction, credit intermediation, and real estate. Average hourly earnings rose by 8 cents over the month. The number of unemployed persons (7.2 million) was about unchanged in November, and the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent for the third month in a row. A year ear- lier, the number of unemployed persons was 6.8 million, and the jobless rate was 4.5 percent. (See table A-1.) Unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (4.1 percent), adult women (4.1 percent), teenagers (16.3 percent), whites (4.2 percent), blacks (8.4 percent), and Hispanics (5.7 percent)--showed little or no change in November.