Employment Situation Summary

Employment Situation Summary

Technical information:Household data:   (202) 691-6378     USDL 07-0793http://www.bls.gov/cps/Establishment data:     691-6555     Transmission of material in this releasehttp://www.bls.gov/ces/     is embargoed until 8:30 A.M. (EDT),Media contact:           691-5902     Friday, June 1, 2007.THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION:  MAY 2007Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 157,000 in May, and the unemploymentrate was unchanged at 4.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S.Department of Labor reported today.  Health care and food services added jobs,while employment declined in manufacturing.  Average hourly earnings rose by6 cents, or 0.3 percent, over the month.Unemployment (Household Survey Data)The number of unemployed persons (6.8 million) and the unemployment rate(4.5 percent) were unchanged in May.  The jobless rate has ranged from 4.4 to4.6 percent since September 2006.  Over the month, the jobless rates for themajor worker groups--adult men (4.0 percent), adult women (3.8 percent), teen-agers (15.7 percent), whites (3.9 percent), blacks (8.5 percent), and Hispanics(5.8 percent)--showed little or no change.  The unemployment rate for Asians was2.9 percent, not seasonally adjusted.  (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)In May, total employment was about unchanged at 145.9 million, and the em-ployment-population ratio held at 63.0 percent.  The civilian labor force alsowas about unchanged at 152.8 million, and the labor force participation rateremained at 66.0 percent.  Both the employment-population ratio and labor forceparticipation rate were down by 0.4 percentage point from December.  (See tableA-1.)The number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons, at 4.5million, was little changed in May but was up by 332,000 over the year.  Thiscategory includes persons who indicated that they would like to work full timebut were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because theywere unable to find full-time jobs.  (See table A-5.)Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)In May, 1.4 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attachedto the labor force, about the same as a year earlier.  These individuals wanted andwere available to work and had looked for a job sometime during the prior 12 months.They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the4 weeks preceding the survey.  Among the marginally attached, there were 368,000discouraged workers in May, about the same as a year earlier.  Discouraged workerswere not currently looking for work specifically because they believed no jobs wereavailable for them.  The remaining 1.0 million persons marginally attached to thelabor force in May had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey forreasons such as school attendance and family responsibilities.  (See table A-13.)----------------------------------------------------------------------|                 Addition of Frequently Asked Questions               ||                                                                      ||    As a service to data users, a set of frequently asked questions   || about the establishment and household surveys has been added to the  || Employment Situation news release beginning this month.  These ques- || tions may change periodically.                                       |----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 -Table A.  Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted(Numbers in thousands)_______________________________________________________________________________|                 |                          ||    Quarterly    |                          ||     averages    |       Monthly data       ||_________________|__________________________|  Apr.-Category         |        |        |                          |  May|  2006  |  2007  |           2007           | change|________|________|__________________________||        |        |        |        |        ||   IV   |    I   |  Mar.  |  Apr.  |  May   |________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________|HOUSEHOLD DATA      |                 Labor force status|_____________________________________________________|        |        |        |        |        |Civilian labor force ....| 152,425| 152,912| 152,979| 152,587| 152,762|    175Employment ............| 145,629| 146,044| 146,254| 145,786| 145,943|    157Unemployment ..........|   6,797|   6,869|   6,724|   6,801|   6,819|     18Not in labor force ......|  77,471|  77,927|  78,055|  78,666|  78,718|     52|________|________|________|________|________|________||                 Unemployment rates|_____________________________________________________|        |        |        |        |        |All workers .............|     4.5|     4.5|     4.4|     4.5|     4.5|    0.0Adult men .............|     3.9|     4.1|     4.0|     4.0|     4.0|     .0Adult women ...........|     3.9|     3.9|     3.8|     3.8|     3.8|     .0Teenagers .............|    15.1|    14.8|    14.5|    15.3|    15.7|     .4White .................|     3.9|     4.0|     3.8|     3.9|     3.9|     .0Black or African       |        |        |        |        |        |American ............|     8.5|     8.1|     8.3|     8.2|     8.5|     .3Hispanic or Latino     |        |        |        |        |        |ethnicity ...........|     4.8|     5.4|     5.1|     5.4|     5.8|     .4|________|________|________|________|________|________|ESTABLISHMENT DATA     |                     Employment|_____________________________________________________|        |        |        |        |        |Nonfarm employment.......| 136,951| 137,447| 137,594|p137,674|p137,831|   p157Goods-producing (1)....|  22,539|  22,505|  22,497| p22,458| p22,439|   p-19Construction ........|   7,691|   7,684|   7,692|  p7,671|  p7,671|     p0Manufacturing .......|  14,147|  14,111|  14,090| p14,070| p14,051|   p-19Service-providing (1)..| 114,412| 114,942| 115,097|p115,216|p115,392|   p176Retail trade (2).....|  15,316|  15,375|  15,404| p15,379| p15,374|    p-5Professional and     |        |        |        |        |        |business services .|  17,727|  17,826|  17,834| p17,855| p17,887|    p32Education and health |        |        |        |        |        |services ..........|  18,019|  18,143|  18,188| p18,246| p18,300|    p54Leisure and          |        |        |        |        |        |hospitality .......|  13,318|  13,423|  13,449| p13,461| p13,507|    p46Government ..........|  22,107|  22,170|  22,197| p22,218| p22,240|    p22|________|________|________|________|________|________||                  Hours of work (3)|_____________________________________________________|        |        |        |        |        |Total private ...........|    33.9|    33.8|    33.9|   p33.8|   p33.9|   p0.1Manufacturing .........|    41.1|    41.0|    41.2|   p41.1|   p41.0|   p-.1Overtime ............|     4.2|     4.2|     4.3|    p4.2|    p4.1|   p-.1|________|________|________|________|________|________||   Indexes of aggregate weekly hours (2002=100)(3)|_____________________________________________________|        |        |        |        |        |Total private ...........|   106.5|   106.8|   107.3|  p107.0|  p107.5|   p0.5|________|________|________|________|________|________||                     Earnings (3)|_____________________________________________________Average hourly earnings, |        |        |        |        |        |total private .........|  $17.00|  $17.16|  $17.21| p$17.24| p$17.30|  p0.06Average weekly earnings, |        |        |        |        |        |total private .........|  575.73|  579.90|  583.42| p582.71| p586.47|  p3.76_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.2 Quarterly averages and the over-the-month change are calculated usingunroundeddata.3 Data relate to private production and nonsupervisory workers.p = preliminary.- 3 -Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 157,000 in May to 137.8 million (sea-sonally adjusted).  Thus far in 2007, payroll employment gains have averaged133,000 per month compared with average increases of 189,000 per month in 2006.In May, job growth continued in a number of service-providing industries, in-cluding health care and food services.  Manufacturing employment continued todecline.  (See table B-1.)Employment in the health care industry continued to grow in May (+25,000),with gains in ambulatory health care services and hospitals.  Over the year,health care added 363,000 jobs.  Employment in social assistance continued totrend up in May; the industry added 11,000 jobs over the month and 72,000 overthe year.In the leisure and hospitality sector, employment in food services anddrinking places rose by 35,000 in May.  This industry has added 361,000 jobsover the year.Within professional and business services, job gains continued over the monthin computer systems design (+8,000) and in architectural and engineering services(+7,000).  Employment in temporary help services was little changed over the monthand has shown little movement since its recent peak in December 2005.In financial activities, employment rose in securities, commodity contracts,and investments (+6,000) and in commercial banking (+4,000) in May.  These gainswere largely offset by small declines in other components of the sector.Elsewhere in the service-providing sector, employment in private education,information, and wholesale trade continued to trend up over the month.  Retailtrade employment changed little in May and has shown no net increase since March2006.Employment in construction was unchanged in May, with no significant move-ments among the component industries.  Since its recent peak in September, con-struction employment has decreased by 54,000.Manufacturing employment continued to decline in May (-19,000).  About halfof the decline occurred in motor vehicles and parts manufacturing, which lost10,000 jobs over the month.  Over the year, factory employment decreased by164,000, with motor vehicles and parts accounting for nearly half of the loss.- 4 -Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)In May, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers onprivate nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1 hour to 33.9 hours, seasonally ad-justed.  The manufacturing workweek and factory overtime each fell by 0.1 hourto 41.0 and 4.1 hours, respectively.  (See table B-2.)The index of aggregate weekly hours of production and nonsupervisory workerson private nonfarm payrolls rose by 0.5 percent in May to 107.5 (2002=100).  Themanufacturing index fell by 0.3 percent over the month to 94.9.  (See table B-5.)Hourly and Weekly Earnings (Establishment Survey Data)Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers on privatenonfarm payrolls increased by 6 cents, or 0.3 percent, in May to $17.30, season-ally adjusted.  Average weekly earnings grew by 0.6 percent over the month to$586.47.  Over the year, average hourly and weekly earnings rose by 3.8 and4.1 percent, respectively.  (See table B-3.)