Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 199,000 in November, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care and government. Employment also increased in manufacturing, reflecting the return of workers from a strike. Employment in retail trade declined. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. For more information about the concepts and statistical methodology used in these two surveys, see the Technical Note. Household Survey Data – The unemployment rate edged down to 3.7 percent in November, and the number of unemployed persons showed little change at 6.3 million. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers (11.4 percent) edged down in November. The jobless rates for adult men (3.7 percent), adult women (3.1 percent), Whites (3.3 percent), Blacks (5.8 percent), Asians (3.5 percent), and Hispanics (4.6 percent) showed little or no change over the month. In November, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) edged down to 1.2 million. These individuals accounted for 18.3 percent of all unemployed persons. The employment-population ratio increased by 0.3 percentage point to 60.5 percent in November. The labor force participation rate was little changed at 62.8 percent and has been essentially flat since August. The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons decreased by 295,000 to 4.0 million in November. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs. In November, the number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job was 5.3 million, little different from the prior month. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job. Among those not in the labor force who wanted a job, the number of persons marginally attached to the labor force changed little at 1.6 million in November. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was 421,000 in November, essentially unchanged from the previous month.
The Employment Situation (12-07-23)
- Economic Monthly Summaries, The Employment Situation
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