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Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up 119,000 in September 2025

December 02, 2025

Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 119,000 in September 2025 but has shown little change since April. In September, employment continued to trend up in health care, food services and drinking places, and social assistance. Job losses occurred in transportation and warehousing and in federal government.

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1-month changes in employment by industry, September 2025
Industry	Employment change
Mining and logging	-3,000
Logging	-600
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction	-2,000
Oil and gas extraction	100
Mining (except oil and gas)	-100
Coal mining	-300
Metal ore mining	100
Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying	100
Support activities for mining	-2,000
Construction	19,000
Construction of buildings	4,200
Residential building construction	3,900
Nonresidential building construction	300
Heavy and civil engineering construction	4,900
Specialty trade contractors	10,300
Residential specialty trade contractors	-800
Nonresidential specialty trade contractors	11,100
Manufacturing	-6,000
Durable goods	-4,000
Wood product manufacturing	-600
Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing	1,500
Primary metal manufacturing	100
Fabricated metal product manufacturing	-500
Machinery manufacturing	1,300
Computer and electronic product manufacturing	-1,700
Computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing	-200
Communications equipment manufacturing	700
Semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing	-2,500
Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments manufacturing	500
Manufacturing and reproducing magnetic and optical media and audio and video equipment manufacturing	-100
Electrical equipment, appliance, and component manufacturing	500
Transportation equipment manufacturing^[1]	-2,400
Motor vehicles and parts^[2]	-1,200
Furniture and related product manufacturing	-1,000
Miscellaneous manufacturing	-1,100
Nondurable goods	-2,000
Food manufacturing	-1,500
Textile mills	800
Textile product mills	200
Apparel manufacturing	100
Paper manufacturing	-2,200
Printing and related support activities	-100
Petroleum and coal products manufacturing	300
Chemical manufacturing	900
Plastics and rubber products manufacturing	-3,500
Beverage, tobacco, and leather and allied product manufacturing	3,300
Trade, transportation, and utilities	-2,000
Wholesale trade	9,400
Merchant wholesalers, durable goods	5,800
Merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods	5,300
Wholesale trade agents and brokers	-1,700
Retail trade	13,900
Motor vehicle and parts dealers	800
Automobile dealers	-800
Other motor vehicle dealers	-200
Automotive parts, accessories, and tire retailers	1,800
Building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers	-4,700
Food and beverage retailers	3,100
Furniture, home furnishings, electronics, and appliance retailers	500
Furniture and home furnishings retailers	-200
Electronics and appliance retailers	700
General merchandise retailers	2,900
Department stores	-800
Warehouse clubs, supercenters, and other general merchandise retailers	3,800
Health and personal care retailers	2,000
Gasoline stations and fuel dealers	6,100
Clothing, clothing accessories, shoe, and jewelry retailers	3,100
Sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, book, and miscellaneous retailers	100
Transportation and warehousing	-25,300
Air transportation	-900
Rail transportation	-200
Water transportation	-500
Truck transportation	-6,800
Transit and ground passenger transportation	2,700
Pipeline transportation	-400
Scenic and sightseeing transportation	-900
Support activities for transportation	-900
Couriers and messengers	-6,700
Warehousing and storage	-10,700
Utilities	-200
Information	0
Motion picture and sound recording industries	-1,400
Publishing industries	3,700
Broadcasting and content providers	900
Telecommunications	-2,300
Computing infrastructure providers, data processing, web hosting, and related services	-1,100
Web search portals, libraries, archives, and other information services	-200
Financial activities	5,000
Finance and insurance	2,400
Monetary authorities-central bank	0
Credit intermediation and related activities	0
Depository credit intermediation^[1]	2,600
Commercial banking	1,300
Nondepository credit intermediation	-1,500
Activities related to credit intermediation	-1,000
Securities, commodity contracts, funds, trusts, and other financial vehicles, investments, and related activities	3,100
Insurance carriers and related activities	-700
Real estate and rental and leasing	2,900
Real estate	-100
Rental and leasing services	2,800
Lessors of nonfinancial intangible assets (except copyrighted works)	200
Professional and business services	-20,000
Professional, scientific, and technical services	-2,800
Legal services	1,100
Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services	1,300
Architectural, engineering, and related services	2,300
Specialized design services	-1,000
Computer systems design and related services	-6,600
Management, scientific, and technical consulting services	3,000
Scientific research and development services	-2,600
Advertising, public relations, and related services	-800
Other professional, scientific, and technical services	400
Management of companies and enterprises	1,200
Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services	-19,100
Administrative and support services	-18,600
Office administrative services	-2,700
Facilities support services	900
Employment services^[1]	-17,800
Temporary help services	-15,900
Business support services	-1,600
Travel arrangement and reservation services	500
Investigation and security services	4,200
Services to buildings and dwellings	-2,200
Other support services	100
Waste management and remediation services	-500
Private education and health services	59,000
Private educational services	1,800
Health care and social assistance	57,100
Health care^[3]	42,800
Ambulatory health care services	23,300
Offices of physicians	8,600
Offices of dentists	-1,800
Offices of other health practitioners	3,700
Outpatient care centers	5,000
Medical and diagnostic laboratories	0
Home health care services	7,200
Other ambulatory health care services	500
Hospitals	16,400
Nursing and residential care facilities	3,100
Skilled nursing care facilities	200
Residential intellectual and developmental disability, mental health, and substance abuse facilities	1,600
Continuing care retirement communities and assisted living facilities for the elderly	1,100
Other residential care facilities	200
Social assistance	14,300
Individual and family services	19,600
Community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services	100
Vocational rehabilitation services	-2,200
Child care services	-3,100
Leisure and hospitality	47,000
Arts, entertainment, and recreation	12,700
Performing arts, spectator sports, and related industries	8,700
Museums, historical sites, and similar institutions	900
Amusement, gambling, and recreation industries	3,100
Accommodation and food services	34,200
Accommodation	-2,300
Food services and drinking places	36,500
Other services	-2,000
Repair and maintenance	-1,800
Personal and laundry services	-1,300
Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations	700
Government	22,000
Federal	-3,000
Federal, except U.S. Postal Service	-2,700
U.S. Postal Service	300
State government	16,000
State government education	11,000
State government, excluding education	4,800
Local government	9,000
Local government education	5,200
Local government, excluding education	3,500
Note: Data are seasonally adjusted. ^[1] Includes other industries, not shown separately. ^[2] Includes motor vehicle manufacturing, motor vehicle body and trailer manufacturing, and motor vehicle parts manufacturing. ^[3] Includes ambulatory health care services, hospitals, and nursing and residential care facilities.

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Within private education and health services, health care added 43,000 jobs in September, about the same as the average monthly gain of 42,000 over the prior 12 months. Over the month, employment gains occurred in ambulatory health care services (+23,000) and hospitals (+16,000). Social assistance employment continued to trend up (+14,000), reflecting continued job growth in individual and family services (+20,000).

Within accommodation and food services (part of leisure and hospitality), employment in food services and drinking places continued to trend up in September (+37,000).

Employment in transportation and warehousing declined by 25,000 in September as job losses occurred in warehousing and storage (−11,000) and couriers and messengers (−7,000).

Within government, federal employment continued to decline in September (−3,000) and is down by 97,000 since reaching a peak in January. (Employees on paid leave or receiving ongoing severance pay are counted as employed in the establishment survey.)

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — September 2025." Also see charts of national employment, hours, and earnings data.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up 119,000 in September 2025 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2025/total-nonfarm-payroll-employment-edged-up-119000-in-september-2025.htm (visited December 03, 2025).

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