The Employment Situation: September 1997 — 1997-10-03

The unemployment rate was unchanged in September, and returning strikers bolstered an otherwise modest rise in nonfarm payroll employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. At 4.9 percent, the jobless rate has remained within a very narrow range since April. The number of payroll jobs rose by 215,000, including a gain of 166,000 in the air transportation industry, where workers returned from strike. (Workers on strike are not counted as employed in the establishment survey.) The number of unemployed persons, at 6.8 million in September, was little changed over the month, and the unemployment rate held at 4.9 percent. Over the past 6 months, the unemployment rate has remained within a tenth of a percentage point of 4.9 percent. Jobless rates for the major worker groups--adult men (4.1 percent), adult women (4.4 percent), teenagers (16.7 percent), whites (4.3 percent), blacks (9.6 percent), and Hispanics (7.6 percent)--showed little or no change in September.