Thumbs Up: Dept of Labor Reports Unemployment Down in January

The latest Commissioner's Statement on the Employment
Situation

(http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jec.pdf)

was issued today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Statement of

                          
Keith Hall

                         
Commissioner

                  
Bureau of Labor Statistics

                          
before the

                   
Joint Economic Committee

                    
UNITED STATES CONGRESS

                   
Friday, February 5, 2010

Madam Chair and Members of the Committee:

     Thank you for
the opportunity to discuss the employment and unemployment data we released
this morning.

     The
unemployment rate declined from 10.0 to 9.7 percent in January.  Nonfarm payroll employment was essentially
unchanged

(-20,000) and on net has shown little movement over the
last 3 months.  In January, job losses
continued in construction and in transportation and warehousing, while
employment increased in temporary help services and retail trade.  With revisions released today, job losses
since the start of the recession in December 2007 totaled 8.4 million,
substantially more than previously reported.

     Construction
employment fell by 75,000 in January, about in line with the average monthly
job loss in 2009.  Nonresidential
specialty trade contracting accounted for the much of the over- the-month
decline.  The nonresidential components
of construction have accounted for the majority of the industry's job loss
since early 2009.  Employment in
transportation and warehousing decreased by 19,000 in January; the entire
decline occurred in courier and messenger services, which laid off more workers
than usual over the month.

     Employment in
temporary help services grew by 52,000 over the month.  This industry, which provides workers to
other businesses, has added nearly a quarter of a million jobs since its recent
low point last September.  Following 2
months of little change, retail trade employment increased by 42,000 in
January, with gains in several components. 
Health care employment continued to rise in January.  Overall, manufacturing employment was little
changed, although motor vehicles and parts added 23,000 jobs.  Since June, the manufacturing workweek for
all employees has increased by 1.2 hours.

     Federal
government employment rose in January, partly due to hiring for the decennial
census.  Employment in state and local
governments, excluding education, continued to trend down over the month.

     Average hourly
earnings of all employees in the private sector rose by 4 cents in January to
$22.45.  Over the past 12 months, average
hourly earnings have risen by 2.0 percent. 
From December 2008 to December 2009, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban
Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 2.8 percent.

     Turning now to
some measures from our household survey, both the number of unemployed persons
(14.8 million) and the unemployment rate (9.7 percent) declined in
January.  However, the share of those
jobless for 27 weeks and over continued to rise.

     The
employment-population ratio increased to 58.4 percent over the month.  The number of persons working part time who
would have preferred full-time employment dropped from 9.2 to 8.3 million, the
lowest level in a year.

     Before
closing, I would note that several changes were introduced today to the
Employment Situation news release text and tables.  Three new household survey tables provide information
on the employment status of veterans, persons with a disability, and the
foreign-born population.  In January, the
unemployment rate of veterans from Gulf War era II (September

2001 to the present) was 12.6 percent, compared with 10.4
percent for nonveterans.  Persons with a
disability had a higher jobless rate than persons with no disability--15.2
versus 10.4 percent.

In addition, 21.8 percent of persons with a disability
were in the labor force, compared with 70.1 percent of persons without a
disability.  The unemployment rate for
the foreign born was 11.8 percent, and the rate for the native born was 10.3
percent.  (The data in these new tables
are not seasonally adjusted.)

     The
establishment survey tables have been redesigned to include the addition of
data on hours and earnings for all private-sector employees as well as
employment information for women.  Women
currently make up 49.9 percent of total nonfarm payroll employment, compared
with 48.8 percent when the recession began in December 2007.  Additional information about the new and
redesigned tables is available on the BLS Web site.

     I would also
note that there were annual adjustments to data from our two surveys.  The establishment survey data released today
reflect the incorporation of annual benchmark revisions.

Each year, we re-anchor our sample-based survey estimates
to full universe counts of employment, primarily derived from administrative
records of the unemployment insurance tax system.

Accounting for revisions during the benchmark and
post-benchmark periods, the previously published level of total nonfarm
employment for December 2009 was revised downward by 1,363,000.

Household survey data for January reflect updated
population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.  Further information about the impact of these
adjustments is contained in our news release and on our Web site.

     Returning now
to the labor market data we released this morning, the jobless rate declined to
9.7 percent in January, and payroll employment was essentially unchanged.

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