TEXT

 
 
 
                                 FOR DELIVERY:  9:30 A.M., E.S.T.
                                 FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1996
 
 
 
 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 time.
 
 
 
                         Statement of
 
                     Katharine G. Abraham
                         Commissioner
                  Bureau of Labor Statistics
 
                         April 5, 1996
 
 
 
 
         Good morning.  I am pleased to be here to comment on
 the March 1996 employment and unemployment data that were
 released this morning.
         Payroll job growth continued in March, and the
 unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.6 percent.
         Nonfarm payroll employment, as measured by the
 establishment survey, grew by 140,000 in March.  The
 increase in payroll jobs during the first quarter of this
 year has averaged 206,000 a month.  This is above the
 monthly average for the last 3 quarters of 1995, but still
 below 1994s average monthly increase.
         Job growth in March was led by the services industry,
 which added 131,000 workers.  Health services, as well as
 seasonal industries including hotels and also amusements and
 recreation had large gains.  Computer services and
 engineering and management services continued their strong
 growth trends.  Employment in help supply services, which
 has shown sporadic growth over the past year, was down
 slightly in March.
         Manufacturing lost 62,000 jobs last month.  More than
 half of these losses stemmed from a strike in two auto brake
 plants that temporarily shut down auto part and assembly
 plants elsewhere.  Many of the affected plants, however,
 were operational for at least a part of the survey reference
 period.  Thus, because our survey defines anyone who is paid
 for even an hour of work as employed, the payroll employment
 figures do not reflect the total number of workers who
 ultimately lost work time as a direct result of the auto
 strike.  The factory workweek fell by two-tenths of an hour
 and factory overtime declined by three-tenths of an hour,
 largely due to the effects of the strike.  Employment in
 other manufacturing industries continued to be weak.  Even
 electronic and electrical equipment experienced a small
 employment decline.
         Employment in construction posted a slight decline, on
 a seasonally adjusted basis, following an unusually large
 gain in February.  Underlying this decline was slower-than-
 normal seasonal hiring in the South and West, where job
 gains had been quite strong in January and February.
         Mining employment grew for the second month in a row,
 adding 3,000 jobs, largely in oil and gas extraction.
         Local government added 31,000 jobs in March.  Some of
 this increase was accounted for by temporary poll worker
 positions.  Declines continued in the employment of federal
 government workers, exclusive of postal workers, at the
 accelerated pace that was set in the second half of last
 year.  Since its recent May 1992 peak, Federal employment,
 again excluding the Postal Service, has fallen by 271,000,
 or 12 percent.
         Turning to data from the household survey, 7.5 million
 persons were unemployed in March, and the unemployment rate
 stood at 5.6 percent.  Neither measure changed significantly
 over the month.  The unemployment rate has now remained
 within a narrow range (5.4 percent to 5.8 percent) for the
 last 18 months.  Among the major race/ethnic groups, the
 unemployment rate for blacks rose.  The number of unemployed
 persons who had been jobless for more than half a year rose
 to 1.3 million in March.  As a share of the labor force, the
 number of long-term unemployed is high for this point in an
 expansion.  The number of persons employed part time for
 economic reasons, which was 4.5 million in March, has
 changed little over the past year.
         The total number of employed persons (which includes
 the self-employed and agricultural workers as well as
 nonfarm wage and salary workers) grew by 488,000 in March.
 The employment-to-population ratio (that is, the percent of
 the civilian population 16 years of age and older that is
 employed) rose to 63.1 percent, the highest it has been
 since April of last year.
         The civilian labor force rose by 637,000 in March.  The
 labor force has grown rapidly over the past 3 months; in
 contrast, the labor force was almost unchanged over the last
 half of 1995.  Over the year ending in March 1996, the
 number of persons in the labor force grew by 1.3 million,
 about in line with our long-term projections.  The labor
 force participation rate (the percent of the civilian
 population aged 16 and over that is in the labor force)
 jumped to 66.9 percent in March, the same as a year earlier.
         In summary, payroll employment grew moderately in
 March.  Employment gains in the first three months of 1996
 were greater, on average, than during most of 1995.
 Unemployment, which has remained within a narrow range for a
 year and a half, was essentially unchanged.
 
 My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your
 questions.