Payroll employment in October 2008

Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, following declines of 127,000 in August and 284,000 in September, as revised.

[Chart data—TXT]

Employment has fallen by 1.2 million in the first 10 months of 2008; over half of the decrease has occurred in the past 3 months.

In October, job losses continued in manufacturing, construction, and several service-providing industries. Health care and mining continued to add jobs.

Manufacturing employment declined by 90,000 over the month. Construction employment fell by 49,000. Within professional and business services, the employment services industry shed 51,000 jobs in October. Retail trade employment fell by 38,000, with the largest losses occurring among automobile dealers. Employment in financial activities declined by 24,000 in October.

Health care employment continued to expand in October, with an increase of 26,000. The mining industry added 7,000 jobs.

These data are from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program, and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation: October 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-1617.

RELATED SUBJECTS

• Employment

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Payroll employment in October 2008 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2008/nov/wk2/art02.htm (visited October 10, 2024).

OF INTEREST

Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics

• Fatal Injuries to Foreign-Born Hispanic or Latino Workers
  Explores the industries, occupations, and events related to these fatalities.
• For-Profit, Nonprofit, and Government Sector Jobs in 2022
  Compares the labor force characteristics and experiences of workers in the for-profit, nonprofit, government, and self-employed sectors.
• Union Membership, Activity, and Compensation in 2022
  Focuses on trends in union membership, work stoppages, and pay and benefits among union members.
• A Look at a Neat Industry: Distilleries
  Examines trends in employment, establishments, wages, and consumer prices for distilleries.
• Healthcare Occupations: Characteristics of the Employed
  Compares the demographic characteristics of workers in healthcare occupations.