July 2, 2009

Statement of

Keith Hall
Commissioner
Bureau of Labor Statistics

before the
Joint Economic Committee
UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Thursday, July 2, 2009

    Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall in June (-467,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.5 percent. Since the recession began in December 2007, payroll employment has dropped by 6.5 million, and the unemployment rate has increased by 4.6 percentage points.

    Payroll employment declines continued to be widespread among the major industries. In June, there were large decreases in manufacturing, construction, and professional and business services. Together, these three sectors have accounted for nearly three-quarters of the jobs lost since the recession began.

    Manufacturing employment fell by 136,000 in June, bringing job loss in this industry to 1.9 million since the start of the recession. Motor vehicle and parts employment declined by 27,000 over the month; since the start of the recession, the industry has lost 335,000 jobs, about one-third of its total.

    Construction employment decreased by 79,000 in June. Job losses in the industry have totaled 1.3 million during this recession.

    Employment in professional and business services dropped by 118,000 in June. Job losses occurred throughout the industry, including temporary help services (-38,000), services to buildings and dwellings (-17,000), and architectural and engineering services (-14,000). Since the start of the recession, professional and business services has lost 1.5 million jobs; temporary help services accounted for over half of this decline.

    Federal government employment fell by 49,000 in June, largely reflecting the layoff of workers temporarily hired to prepare for Census 2010. Elsewhere in the service-providing sector, job losses continued in financial activities (-27,000), information (-21,000), and wholesale trade (-16,000). Retail trade employment edged down over the month (-21,000); losses continued among auto dealerships (-9,000).

    The health care industry added 21,000 jobs over the month, in line with its average monthly gain for the first 5 months of this year, but below the average gain of 30,000 jobs per month in 2008.

    Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers in the private sector were unchanged in June at $18.53. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.7 percent. From May 2008 to May 2009, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers declined by 1.5 percent.

    Turning to measures from the household survey, the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.5 percent in June. The rate had increased by 0.4 or 0.5 percentage points in each of the prior 6 months. Since the onset of the recession in December 2007, the unemployment rate has risen by 4.6 percentage points. There were 14.7 million unemployed persons in June, little changed from the prior month. Since December 2007, unemployment has risen by 7.2 million.

    The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks or longer continued to increase in June. The 4.4 million long-term jobless individuals accounted for 3 in 10 unemployed persons.

    The employment-population ratio edged down to 59.5 percent in June. The ratio has fallen by 3.2 percentage points since the recession began.

    Among the employed, there were 9.0 million persons working part time in June who would have preferred full-time work. After rising sharply last fall and winter, this measure has been little changed since March.

    In summary, nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall in June (-467,000), with job losses totaling 6.5 million since the recession began. The unemployment rate, at 9.5 percent, was little changed over the month.