Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation News Release — 2010-07-02

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. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and unemployment data we released this morning. Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 125,000 in June, and the unemployment rate edged down to 9.5 percent. The decline in employment reflects a large drop in the number of temporary workers for Census 2010. The number of jobs in the private sector edged up (+83,000), due to modest increases in several industries. Private sector employment has risen by 593,000 so far in 2010, but in June was 7.9 million below its prerecession level. Over the month, federal government employment declined sharply. The number of temporary Census 2010 workers dropped by 225,000, leaving 339,000 temporary workers on the Census payroll.