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 Daylight Time.
                                 
                          Statement of
                                
                           Keith Hall
                          Commissioner
                   Bureau of Labor Statistics

                       Thursday, July 2, 2009                                


     Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall in June
(-467,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.5
percent.  Since the recession began in December 2007, payroll
employment has dropped by 6.5 million, and the unemployment rate
has increased by 4.6 percentage points.
     
     Payroll employment declines continued to be widespread among
the major industries.  In June, there were large decreases in
manufacturing, construction, and professional and business
services.  Together, these three sectors have accounted for
nearly three-quarters of the jobs lost since the recession began.
     
     Manufacturing employment fell by 136,000 in June, bringing
job loss in this industry to 1.9 million since the start of the
recession.  Motor vehicle and parts employment declined by 27,000
over the month; since the start of the recession, the industry
has lost 335,000 jobs, about one-third of its total.
     
     Construction employment decreased by 79,000 in June.  Job
losses in the industry have totaled 1.3 million during this
recession.
     
     Employment in professional and business services dropped by
118,000 in June.  Job losses occurred throughout the industry,
including temporary help services (-38,000), services to
buildings and dwellings (-17,000), and architectural and
engineering services (-14,000).  Since the start of the
recession, professional and business services has lost
1.5 million jobs; temporary help services accounted for over half
of this decline.
     
     Federal government employment fell by 49,000 in June,
largely reflecting the layoff of workers temporarily hired to
prepare for Census 2010.  Elsewhere in the service-providing
sector, job losses continued in financial activities (-27,000),
information (-21,000), and wholesale trade (-16,000).  Retail
trade employment edged down over the month (-21,000); losses
continued among auto dealerships (-9,000).
     
     The health care industry added 21,000 jobs over the month,
in line with its average monthly gain for the first 5 months of
this year, but below the average gain of 30,000 jobs per month in
2008.
     
     Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory
workers in the private sector were unchanged in June at $18.53.
Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by
2.7 percent.  From May 2008 to May 2009, the Consumer Price Index
for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers declined by 1.5
percent.
     
     Turning to measures from the household survey, the
unemployment rate was little changed at 9.5 percent in June.  The
rate had increased by 0.4 or 0.5 percentage points in each of the
prior 6 months.  Since the onset of the recession in December
2007, the unemployment rate has risen by 4.6 percentage points.
There were 14.7 million unemployed persons in June, little
changed from the prior month.  Since December 2007, unemployment
has risen by 7.2 million.
     
     The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks or longer
continued to increase in June.  The 4.4 million long-term jobless
individuals accounted for 3 in 10 unemployed persons.
     
     The employment-population ratio edged down to 59.5 percent
in June.  The ratio has fallen by 3.2 percentage points since the
recession began.
     
     Among the employed, there were 9.0 million persons working
part time in June who would have preferred full-time work.  After
rising sharply last fall and winter, this measure has been little
changed since March.
     
     In summary, nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall in
June (-467,000), with job losses totaling 6.5 million since the
recession began.  The unemployment rate, at 9.5 percent, was
little changed over the month.