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

                          William W. Beach
                            Commissioner
                     Bureau of Labor Statistics

                        Friday, July 5, 2019


      Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 224,000 in June, 
and the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.7 percent. 
Over the month, notable job gains occurred in professional and 
business services, in health care, and in transportation and 
warehousing.
      
      Incorporating revisions for April and May, which decreased 
employment by 11,000, monthly job gains averaged 172,000 in the 
first half of 2019. This is below the average monthly job gain 
of 223,000 for 2018.
      
      In June, professional and business services added 51,000 
jobs, following little employment change in May (+24,000). Thus 
far in 2019, employment growth in professional and business 
services has averaged 35,000 per month, compared with an average 
of 47,000 per month in 2018.
      
      Health care employment increased by 35,000 in June, 
including gains in ambulatory health care services (+19,000) and 
hospitals (+11,000). Over the past 12 months, health care has 
added 403,000 jobs.
      
      Employment in transportation and warehousing expanded by 
24,000 in June, with gains in couriers and messengers (+7,000) 
and air transportation (+3,000). Overall, transportation and 
warehousing has added 158,000 jobs over the past 12 months.
      
      Construction employment continued to trend up in June 
(+21,000). Over the past 12 months, construction employment has 
increased by 224,000.
      
      In June, employment in manufacturing edged up (+17,000), 
following little change in recent months. Job gains occurred in 
computer and electronic products (+7,000) and in plastics and 
rubber products (+4,000) in June. So far in 2019, employment 
growth in manufacturing has averaged 8,000 per month, compared 
with 22,000 per month in 2018.
      
      Employment showed little change over the month in other 
major industries--including mining, wholesale trade, retail 
trade, information, financial activities, leisure and 
hospitality, and government.
      
      Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 
payrolls rose by 6 cents in June to $27.90, following a 9-cent 
gain in May. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings 
have risen by 3.1 percent; the over-the-year percent change has 
been 3.0 percent or above for 11 consecutive months. From May 
2018 to May 2019, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban 
Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.8 percent (on a seasonally 
adjusted basis).
      
      Turning to measures from the survey of households, both the 
unemployment rate, at 3.7 percent, and the number of unemployed 
people, at 6.0 million, were little changed in June.
      
      Among the unemployed, the number of people searching for 
work for 27 weeks or more was little changed in June, at 1.4 
million. These long-term unemployed accounted for 23.7 percent 
of the unemployed.
      
      The labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, was 
about unchanged in June. The employment-population ratio was 
60.6 percent for the fourth month in a row.
      
      In June, 4.3 million people were working part time for 
economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 
workers), essentially unchanged from the previous month.
      
      Among those neither working nor looking for work in June, 
1.6 million were considered marginally attached to the labor 
force, little changed from a year earlier. (People who are 
marginally attached to the labor force 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.) Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 
attached who believed no jobs were available for them, numbered 
425,000 in June, also little changed from a year earlier.
      
      In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 224,000 
in June, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.7 
percent.