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

                      Tuesday, October 22, 2013


      Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 148,000 in September, 
and the unemployment rate, at 7.2 percent, changed little. Over 
the prior 12 months, job gains averaged 185,000 per month. In 
September, employment increased in construction, wholesale 
trade, and transportation and warehousing.

      The release of these data comes about 2 weeks later than 
originally scheduled because of the recent partial Federal 
government shutdown. Data collection for the estimates in this 
statement had been completed prior to the shutdown in accordance 
with our normal schedule. However, the processing of some 
estimates and other production activities were delayed due to 
the shutdown.

      Construction added 20,000 jobs in September after 6 months 
of little change. Wholesale trade employment increased by 16,000 
in September.

      Transportation and warehousing employment increased by 
23,000 over the month. This job gain occurred mainly in transit 
and ground passenger transportation (+18,000).

      Professional and business services employment continued to 
trend up in September (+32,000).  Job gains in this industry 
averaged 52,000 per month over the prior 12 months. Employment 
in temporary help services continued to trend up in September 
(+20,000).

      Within retail trade, employment rose in building material 
and garden supply stores (+5,000) and automobile dealers 
(+4,000).

      Health care employment was essentially unchanged in 
September (+7,000). Since the beginning of 2013, employment 
growth in health care has averaged 19,000 per month, compared 
with 27,000 per month in 2012. 

      In financial activities, credit intermediation lost 8,000 
jobs in September. Within leisure and hospitality, food services 
employment was essentially unchanged (-7,000). Over the prior 12 
months, job growth in food services averaged 28,000 per month.

      Employment in other major industries showed little change 
in September.

      Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 
payrolls rose by 3 cents in September. Over the past 12 months, 
average hourly earnings have risen by 49 cents, or 2.1 percent. 
From August 2012 to August 2013, the Consumer Price Index for 
All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose by 1.5 percent.

      Turning to our survey of households, the unemployment rate, 
at 7.2 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 11.3 
million, were essentially unchanged in September. The jobless 
rate has declined by 0.4 percentage point since June.

      Both the labor force participation rate, at 63.2 percent, 
and the employment-population ratio, at 58.6 percent, were 
unchanged over the month.

      The number of involuntary part-time workers was unchanged 
at 7.9 million in September. These individuals would have 
preferred full-time employment but had their hours cut or were 
unable to find full-time work.

      Among persons who were neither working nor looking for work 
in September, 2.3 million were classified as marginally attached 
to the labor force, down by 215,000 from a year earlier. 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 852,000 in September, 
essentially unchanged from a year earlier.

      In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 148,000 
in September, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 
7.2 percent.