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                          Statement of

                        Erica L. Groshen
                          Commissioner
                   Bureau of Labor Statistics

                    Friday, December 4, 2015


      Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 211,000 in November, and 
the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent. Job gains 
occurred in construction, professional and technical services, 
and health care. Employment declined in mining and information.

      Incorporating revisions for September and October, which 
increased nonfarm payroll employment by 35,000, monthly job 
gains have averaged 218,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 
months prior to November, employment growth averaged 237,000 per 
month.

      Construction employment rose by 46,000 in November; more 
than half of the gain was among residential specialty trade 
contractors (+26,000). Job growth in construction has picked up 
in recent months. Over the year, construction has added 259,000 
jobs.

      Employment in professional and technical services rose by 
28,000 in November. Within this industry, accounting and 
bookkeeping services added 11,000 jobs, and employment continued 
to trend up in computer systems design and related services 
(+5,000). 

      Health care employment increased by 24,000 over the month, 
following a large gain in October (+51,000). Hospitals added 
13,000 jobs in November. Over the past 12 months, health care 
employment has risen by 470,000. 

      Employment in food services and drinking places continued 
to trend up over the month (+32,000). Employment in this 
industry has grown by 374,000 over the year.

      Retail trade employment continued on an upward trend in 
November (+31,000) and has risen by 284,000 over the year. 
November job gains occurred in general merchandise stores 
(+12,000) and motor vehicle and parts dealers (+9,000). Over the 
past 12 months, these two industries have added 85,000 jobs and 
71,000 jobs, respectively.

      Mining employment declined by 11,000 over the month. Since 
a recent peak in December 2014, mining employment has declined 
by 123,000, or 14 percent. Three-fourths of the job losses over 
this period have been in support activities for mining.

      Employment in information was down by 12,000 in November, 
as motion picture and sound recording industries shed 13,000 
jobs. Employment in motion picture and sound recording 
industries has shown little change on net over the year.

      Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 
payrolls rose by 4 cents in November to $25.25, following a 
9-cent increase in October. Over the past 12 months, average 
hourly earnings have risen by 2.3 percent. From October 2014 to 
October 2015, the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers 
(CPI-U) was up by 0.1 percentage point (on a seasonally adjusted 
basis). 

      Turning now to data from the survey of households, the 
unemployment rate held at 5.0 percent in November, and the 
number of unemployed, at 7.9 million, was essentially unchanged. 
These measures are down by 0.8 percentage point and 1.1 million, 
respectively, over the year. Among the unemployed in November, 
25.7 percent, or 2.1 million, had been unemployed for 27 weeks 
or more.

      The labor force participation rate, at 62.5 percent, 
changed little in November. The employment-population ratio, at 
59.3 percent, was unchanged over the month and has shown little 
movement since October 2014.

      Among those employed, the number working part time for 
economic reasons, also referred to as involuntary part-time 
workers, rose by 319,000 in November to 6.1 million, following 
declines in September and October. Over the longer term, the 
number of involuntary part-time workers has been trending down 
since 2011. (Involuntary part-time workers are those who would 
have preferred full-time employment but were working part time 
because their hours had been cut back or because they were 
unable to find full-time work.)

      Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 
in November, 1.7 million were classified as marginally attached 
to the labor force, down from 2.1 million a year earlier. The 
number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 
attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was 
594,000 in November, little different from a year earlier. (The 
marginally attached are individuals 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 rose by 211,000 in 
November, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0 
percent.