FOR DELIVERY: 9:30 A.M., E.D.T. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1997 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 Katharine G. Abraham Commissioner Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday, October 3, 1997 Good morning. I am pleased to have this opportunity to comment on the employment and unemployment data that were released this morning. The unemployment rate was unchanged in September at 4.9 percent. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 215,000, buoyed by the return of striking transportation workers. The August strike involved workers in the air transportation industry, where employment fell by 172,000 in August and rebounded by 166,000 in September. Trucking companies added 18,000 workers over the past two months, in part reflecting increased demand for their services in the wake of the strike. Employment in the services industry rose by 98,000, about the average pace for the year to date. Business services added 46,000 jobs, reflecting continued strength in computer services and a gain in help supply services, only the second in that industry since March. Rapid job growth continued in engineering and management services (14,000), and health services (19,000) sustained its average growth pace for the year to date. On the other hand, strong early summer hiring resulted in more job reductions than usual in September in amusements and recreation and less hiring than usual in child day care. Employment in finance continued to grow, but insurance payrolls declined after five months of small gains. Retail trade job growth in both August and September was below its average for the year, following a surge from April to July. Employment growth in wholesale trade (10,000) also was slightly below its average. Mining, which has had a long-term declining employment trend, added 3,000 jobs in September. The gain was due mainly to the strength of oil and gas extraction, which has added 6,000 jobs so far this year. In government, there was a particularly large drop in local education, where changes in the school calendar continue to make precise seasonal adjustment problematic. Taking a longer term view, local public schools have added about 170,000 workers in each of the last two years, compared with an average of 107,000 over the five prior years. Continuing losses in Federal employment included declines in September among postal workers hired temporarily during the air transportation strike. Manufacturing payrolls declined by 16,000, following a large increase in August. Automobile factory employment fell by 14,000, reflecting the temporary closing of several plants for inventory adjustment. There was a particularly large job loss in apparel manufacturing. Employment continued to increase in electronic components. Construction employment was essentially unchanged in September. Growth in construction payrolls has slowed dramatically since May. Average hourly earnings of production or nonsupervisory workers rose by 4 cents in September and totaled 11 cents over the third quarter. Over the year, hourly earnings rose by 3.6 percent. The average workweek fell by 0.1 hour in September after rising by 0.2 hour in August. Both the factory workweek and factory overtime were unchanged at 41.9 and 4.7 hours, respectively. Turning to data from the household survey, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9 percent, and the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 6.8 million. Civilian employment also was little changed at 129.7 million. Since the end of last year, employment has grown by about 1.6 million (after adjusting for the effect of revised estimates of the size of the working-age population introduced in January), although little change has been registered since May. In summary, payroll employment increased modestly in September, after accounting for returning strikers. Hourly earnings gains in the third quarter (11 cents) were comparable to those of the prior four quarters. The unemployment rate has been within a tenth of a percentage point of its current level, 4.9 percent, since April. My colleagues and I now would be glad to respond to your questions. 4 4