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.


                            Statement of

                          Erica L. Groshen
                            Commissioner
                     Bureau of Labor Statistics

                       Friday, November 7, 2014


      Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 214,000 in October, 
and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 percent. Employment 
rose in food services and drinking places, retail trade, and 
health care.

      Incorporating revisions for August and September, which 
increased total nonfarm payroll employment by 31,000, monthly 
job increases have averaged 224,000 over the past 3 months. In 
the 12 months prior to October, employment growth averaged 
222,000 per month.

      In the service-providing sector, food services and drinking 
places added 42,000 jobs in October, compared with an average 
monthly gain of 26,000 over the prior 12 months. 

      Employment in retail trade increased by 27,000 in October. 
Job gains occurred in general merchandise stores (+12,000) and 
automobile dealers (+4,000).

      Health care employment grew by 25,000 in October, following 
a similar-sized increase in September. Over the year, health 
care has added 257,000 jobs. Within the industry, ambulatory 
health care contributed 19,000 to the over-the-month job growth.

      Employment in professional and business services continued 
to trend up over the month (+37,000). Over the prior 12 months, 
job gains in the industry averaged 56,000 per month. In October, 
employment continued on an upward trend in temporary help 
services and in computer systems design and related services 
(+15,000 and +7,000, respectively). 

      Employment in transportation and warehousing also continued 
to trend up in October (+13,000). 

      Turning to the goods-producing sector, manufacturing 
employment continued trending up in October (+15,000), with 
over-the-month gains occurring in machinery (+5,000), furniture 
and related products (+4,000), and semiconductors and electronic 
components (+2,000). 

      Construction employment also continued on an upward trend 
in October (+12,000). Within the industry, employment among 
residential specialty trade contractors edged up by 10,000. Over 
the year, construction has gained 231,000 jobs.

      Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 
payrolls rose by 3 cents to $24.57 in October. Over the 12 
months ending in October, average hourly earnings grew by 2.0 
percent. From September 2013 to September 2014, the Consumer 
Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.7 
percent.

      Turning to measures from the survey of households, the 
unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 percent in October. Since 
the beginning of the year, the jobless rate is down by 0.8 
percentage point. 

      In October, the number of unemployed persons edged down to 
9.0 million. The number of long-term unemployed (those 
unemployed 27 weeks or more) was little changed over the month, 
at 2.9 million.

      The labor force participation rate was 62.8 percent in 
October and has been essentially flat since April. The 
employment-population ratio rose in October to 59.2 percent. 

      In October, the number of people working part time for 
economic reasons was 7.0 million, about unchanged over the 
month. (These individuals, also referred to as involuntary part-
time workers, would have preferred full-time employment, but had 
their hours cut or were unable to find full-time work.)

      Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 
in October, 2.2 million were classified as marginally attached 
to the labor force, little changed over the year. (These 
individuals had not looked for work in the 4 weeks prior to the 
survey but wanted a job, were available for work, and had looked 
for a job within the last 12 months.) The number of discouraged 
workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 
no jobs were available for them, was 770,000 in October, also 
little changed over the year.

      In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 214,000 
in October, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 percent.