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

                        Erica L. Groshen
                          Commissioner
                   Bureau of Labor Statistics

                    Friday, September 2, 2016


      Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 151,000 in August, 
and the unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent. Employment 
continued to trend up in several service-providing industries.

      Incorporating revisions for June and July, which reduced 
nonfarm payroll employment by 1,000 on net, monthly job gains 
have averaged 232,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 months 
prior to August, employment growth averaged 204,000 per month.

      Employment in food services and drinking places continued 
to trend up in August (+34,000). Over the year, the industry has 
added 312,000 jobs.

      The social assistance industry added 22,000 jobs in August, 
mostly in individual and family services (+17,000).

      Employment in professional and technical services edged up 
by 20,000 in August, roughly in line with the average monthly 
gain over the prior 12 months (+24,000).

      Employment in financial activities continued on an upward 
trend in August (+15,000), with a gain of 6,000 in securities, 
commodity contracts, and investments. The financial activities 
sector has added 167,000 jobs over the year.

      Health care employment continued to trend up over the month 
(+14,000), but at a pace well below the average monthly gain 
over the prior 12 months (+39,000). In August, hospitals added 
11,000 jobs, and employment in ambulatory health care services 
trended up (+13,000). A job loss in nursing and residential care 
facilities (-9,000) offset a gain in July.

      Mining employment continued on a downward trend in August 
(-4,000). Although job losses have moderated in the last 3 
months, employment in mining has fallen by 223,000 since a peak 
in September 2014.

      Employment changed little over the month in several other 
industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale 
trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, temporary 
help services, and government.

      Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 
payrolls were up by 3 cents in August to $25.73. Over the past 
12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.4 percent. 
From July 2015 to July 2016, the Consumer Price Index for All 
Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 0.9 percent (on a 
seasonally adjusted basis).

      In August, most major labor market measures from the survey 
of households continued to show little or no change. The 
unemployment rate was 4.9 percent for the third consecutive 
month and has shown little net movement during the past year. 
There were 7.8 million unemployed persons in August, about the 
same as a year earlier. In August, 2.0 million unemployed 
persons had been searching for work for 27 weeks or more; these 
long-term unemployed accounted for 26.1 percent of the 
unemployed, little changed from a year earlier.

      Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.8 percent, 
and the employment-population ratio, at 59.7 percent, were 
unchanged over the month. Among the employed, 6.1 million worked 
part time for economic reasons in August, little changed from 
July. (These involuntary part-time workers would prefer to work 
full time, but had their hours cut or were unable to find full-
time jobs.)

      Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 
in August, 1.7 million were marginally attached to the labor 
force, about the same as a year earlier. Discouraged workers, a 
subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were 
available for them, numbered 576,000 in August, also about the 
same as a year earlier. (Marginally attached to the labor force 
refers to those who 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.)

      In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 151,000 
in August, and the unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent.