Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation News Release — 2013-11-08

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 Standard Time. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 204,000 in October, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 7.3 percent. Over the prior 12 months, job gains averaged 190,000 per month. In October, employment rose in leisure and hospitality, retail trade, professional and technical services, manufacturing, and health care. The release of these data comes 1 week later than originally scheduled because of the recent partial federal government shutdown, which began on October 1st and ended on October 16th. All data collection activities for both the household and payroll surveys were suspended during the shutdown. Shortly after the shutdown ended, October data collection for both surveys began. BLS delayed the release of the October estimates by 1 week to allow enough time to collect data.