December 2001 — 2001-12-07

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. I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the labor market data we released this morning. The job market continued to deteriorate in November. The unemployment rate rose three-tenths of a percentage point to 5.7 percent, following a jump of half a percentage point in October. Payroll employment fell by 331,000 in November in the wake of deep job cuts totaling 468,000 (as revised) in October. Job losses were widespread again in November, although the largest declines continued to be concentrated in manufacturing and help supply services. Since its recent peak in March, total nonfarm employment has fallen by 1.2 million. I would note that the March peak in payroll employment coincides with the onset of the recession, as recently announced by the National Bureau of Economic Research.