Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation — 2004-07-02

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 112,000 in June, following 3 months of larger gains. Since August 2003, payroll employment has risen by 1.5 million. The June job gains were concentrated in health care and social assistance, professional and technical services, and transportation and warehousing. Employment in other industries was little changed over the month. The unemployment rate remained at 5.6 percent in June and has been essentially flat since December. Within the service-providing sector, employment in health care and social assistance continued to grow in June, with a gain of 30,000. The industry added 174,000 jobs in the first half of 2004. Over the month, employment increased in ambulatory health care services (+11,000) and hospitals (+6,000). The child day care services component of social assistance added 11,000 jobs.