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Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 173,000 in August. The changes in total nonfarm payroll employment for June and July were both revised upwards to 245,000. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 221,000 per month. Over the prior 12 months, they averaged 247,000 per month.
Month | Total nonfarm | Mining and logging |
Construc- tion |
Manufac- turing |
Trade, transpor- tation, and utilities |
Informa- tion |
Financial activities | Professional and business services |
Education and health services |
Leisure and hospitality |
Other services | Govern- ment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aug 2014 |
213,000 | 3,000 | 17,000 | 14,000 | 14,000 | 13,000 | 13,000 | 56,000 | 42,000 | 25,000 | 12,000 | 4,000 |
Sep 2014 |
250,000 | 7,000 | 22,000 | 9,000 | 40,000 | 4,000 | 10,000 | 51,000 | 46,000 | 49,000 | -3,000 | 15,000 |
Oct 2014 |
221,000 | 1,000 | 10,000 | 23,000 | 50,000 | -3,000 | 7,000 | 40,000 | 28,000 | 55,000 | 7,000 | 3,000 |
Nov 2014 |
423,000 | 1,000 | 30,000 | 45,000 | 98,000 | 7,000 | 28,000 | 96,000 | 51,000 | 42,000 | 16,000 | 9,000 |
Dec 2014 |
329,000 | 1,000 | 44,000 | 19,000 | 54,000 | 6,000 | 7,000 | 72,000 | 54,000 | 56,000 | 6,000 | 10,000 |
Jan 2015 |
201,000 | -7,000 | 41,000 | 17,000 | 35,000 | 6,000 | 19,000 | 20,000 | 42,000 | 24,000 | 5,000 | -1,000 |
Feb 2015 |
266,000 | -14,000 | 31,000 | 3,000 | 44,000 | 7,000 | 9,000 | 49,000 | 61,000 | 61,000 | 10,000 | 5,000 |
Mar 2015 |
119,000 | -14,000 | -12,000 | 6,000 | 39,000 | -2,000 | 13,000 | 39,000 | 42,000 | 6,000 | 0 | 2,000 |
Apr 2015 |
187,000 | -14,000 | 30,000 | 0 | 20,000 | 10,000 | 7,000 | 66,000 | 54,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 | -2,000 |
May 2015 |
260,000 | -20,000 | 12,000 | 6,000 | 57,000 | -1,000 | 9,000 | 68,000 | 57,000 | 56,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 |
Jun 2015 |
245,000 | -5,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 52,000 | 3,000 | 21,000 | 68,000 | 61,000 | 19,000 | -3,000 | 27,000 |
Jul 2015 |
245,000 | -6,000 | 7,000 | 12,000 | 55,000 | 2,000 | 21,000 | 39,000 | 53,000 | 30,000 | 11,000 | 21,000 |
Aug 2015 |
173,000 | -10,000 | 3,000 | -17,000 | 28,000 | -7,000 | 19,000 | 33,000 | 62,000 | 33,000 | -4,000 | 33,000 |
In August, employment increased in health care and social assistance and in financial activities and declined in manufacturing and mining.
Health care and social assistance (part of education and health services) added 56,000 jobs in August. Health care employment increased by 41,000 over the month, with job growth occurring in ambulatory health care services and hospitals. Employment rose by 16,000 in social assistance, which includes child day care services and services for the elderly and disabled. Over the year, employment has risen by 457,000 in health care and by 107,000 in social assistance.
In August, financial activities employment increased by 19,000, with job gains in real estate and in securities, commodity contracts, and investments. Over the year, employment in financial activities has grown by 170,000.
Employment in professional and business services continued to trend up in August (+33,000) and has increased by 641,000 over the year.
Employment in food services and drinking places (part of leisure and hospitality) continued on an upward trend in August, in line with its average monthly gain over the prior 12 months.
Manufacturing employment decreased by 17,000 in August, after changing little in July. Job losses occurred in a number of component industries, including fabricated metal products and food manufacturing. These losses more than offset gains in motor vehicles and parts and in miscellaneous durable goods manufacturing. Total employment in manufacturing has shown little net change since the beginning of the year.
Employment in mining (part of mining and logging) fell in August, with losses concentrated in support activities for mining. Since reaching a peak in December 2014, mining employment has declined by 90,000.
Employment in other major industries, including construction, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and government, showed little change over the month.
These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. Data for the most recent month are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — August 2015" (HTML) (PDF). More charts featuring nonfarm employment data are in Current Employment Statistics Highlights: August 2015.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Payroll employment up 173,000 in August 2015 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/payroll-employment-up-173000-in-august-2015.htm (visited October 31, 2024).