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                            Statement of

                          Erica L. Groshen
                            Commissioner
                     Bureau of Labor Statistics

                       Friday, October 3, 2014



      Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 248,000 in September, 
and the unemployment rate declined to 5.9 percent. Employment 
increased in professional and business services, retail trade, 
and health care. 
      
      Incorporating the revisions for July and August, which 
increased total nonfarm payroll employment by 69,000 on net, 
monthly job increases have averaged 224,000 over the past 3 
months. In the 12 months prior to September, employment growth 
averaged 213,000 per month.
      
      Professional and business services added 81,000 jobs in 
September, compared with an average monthly gain of 56,000 over 
the prior 12 months. In September, job gains occurred in 
employment services (+34,000), management and technical 
consulting services (+12,000), and architectural and engineering 
services (+6,000).
      
      Retail trade employment rose by 35,000 in September. Most 
of the increase occurred in food and beverage stores (+20,000), 
largely reflecting the return of workers who had been off 
payrolls in August due to employment disruptions at a grocery 
store chain in New England. Over the year, retail trade 
employment has increased by 264,000.
      
      Employment in health care increased by 23,000 in September. 
Over the month, job gains occurred in home health care services 
(+7,000) and in hospitals (+6,000). Over the year, health care 
has added 256,000 jobs.
      
      In September, the information industry added 12,000 jobs, 
with a gain of 5,000 in telecommunications. Over the year, 
employment in information has shown little net change.
      
      Among other service-providing industries, employment in 
food services and drinking places and in financial activities 
continued to trend up in September (+20,000 and +12,000, 
respectively).
      
      In the goods-producing sector, mining employment rose by 
9,000 in September and is up by 50,000 over the year.       
Construction employment continued on an upward trend in 
September (+16,000). Within the industry, residential building 
gained 6,000 jobs. Over the year, construction employment has 
grown by 230,000. Employment in manufacturing showed little 
change over the month.

      Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 
payrolls were little changed at $24.53 in September (-1 cent), 
following an increase of 8 cents in August. Over the 12 months 
ending in September, average hourly earnings grew by 2.0 
percent. From August 2013 to August 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 declined in September by 0.2 percentage point 
to 5.9 percent. Over the year, the jobless rate is down by 1.3 
percentage points.
      
      In September, there were 9.3 million unemployed persons, a 
decrease of 329,000 from August. The number of long-term 
unemployed (those unemployed 27 weeks or more) was essentially 
unchanged over the month, at 3.0 million.
      
      The labor force participation rate, at 62.7 percent, 
changed little in September. The employment-population ratio 
remained at 59.0 percent; it has been at this level for 4 
consecutive months.
      
      Among the employed, the number of people working part time 
for economic reasons was little changed at 7.1 million in 
September. (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 September, 2.2 million were classified as marginally attached 
to the labor force, about unchanged 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 698,000 in September, a 
decline of 154,000 over the year.
      
      In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 248,000 
in September, and the unemployment rate declined to 5.9 percent.