Payroll employment edges up in September 2011

Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up in September (+103,000). The increase in employment partially reflected the return to payrolls of about 45,000 telecommunications workers who had been on strike in August.

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Employment in professional and business services increased by 48,000 over the month and has grown by 897,000 since a recent low in September 2009. Employment in temporary help services edged up in September; this industry has added 53,000 jobs over the past 3 months.

Health care employment continued to expand in September, with an increase of 44,000. Within the industry, job gains occurred in ambulatory health care services (+26,000) and in hospitals (+13,000).

Manufacturing employment changed little in September (−13,000) and has been essentially flat for the past 2 months.

Government employment continued to trend down over the month (−34,000). The U.S. Postal Service continued to lose jobs (−5,000). Local government employment declined by 35,000 and has fallen by 535,000 since September 2008.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. These data are seasonally adjusted, and data for the most recent two months are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation – September 2011," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL-11-1441.