The Employment Situation: July 2002 — 2002-08-02

Both the unemployment rate, 5.9 percent, and total nonfarm payroll employment, 130.8 million, were unchanged in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. A gain in payroll employment in services was partially offset by a decline in construction. Job losses continued to moderate in manufacturing, but the factory workweek fell. The number of unemployed persons (8.3 million) and the unemployment rate (5.9 percent) were essentially unchanged for the third month in a row in July. The jobless rates for adult men (5.2 percent), adult women (5.2 percent), teenagers (17.7 percent), whites (5.3 percent), blacks (9.9 percent), and Hispanics (7.6 percent) showed little change from the previous month. (See tables A-1 and A-2.) The number of persons unemployed for 15 weeks or more fell by 220,000 to 2.9 million in July. This measure had been trending steadily upward since June 2001.