Payroll employment in September 2009

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 263,000 in September. From May through September, job losses averaged 307,000 per month, compared with losses averaging 645,000 per month from November 2008 to April. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 7.2 million.

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In September, construction employment declined by 64,000. Since December 2007, employment in construction has fallen by 1.5 million.

Employment in manufacturing fell by 51,000 in September. Employment in manufacturing has contracted by 2.1 million since the onset of the recession.

In the service-providing sector, the number of jobs in retail trade fell by 39,000 in September.

Employment in transportation and warehousing continued to trend down in September. The number of jobs in financial activities, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and information showed little or no change over the month.

Employment in health care continued to increase in September (19,000), with the largest gain occurring in ambulatory health care services (15,000).

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. August 2009 and September 2009 payroll employment figures are preliminary. Employment and unemployment data can be found in "The Employment Situation — September 2009" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL 09-1180.