Washington, DC…Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 223,000 in December, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care, construction, and social assistance.

This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey
measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The
establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. For more
information about the concepts and statistical methodology used in these two surveys, see
the Technical Note.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Revision of Seasonally Adjusted Household Survey Data |
| |
| Seasonally adjusted household survey data have been revised using updated seasonal |
| adjustment factors, a procedure done at the end of each calendar year. Seasonally |
| adjusted estimates back to January 2018 were subject to revision. The unemployment |
| rates for January 2022 through November 2022 (as originally published and as revised) |
| appear in table A at the end of this news release, along with additional information |
| about the revisions. |
|_______________________________________________________________________________________|

Household Survey Data

The unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in December and has remained in a narrow
range of 3.5 percent to 3.7 percent since March. The number of unemployed persons edged
down to 5.7 million in December. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for Whites fell to 3.0 percent in
December. The jobless rates for adult men (3.1 percent), adult women (3.2 percent),
teenagers (10.4 percent), Blacks (5.7 percent), Asians (2.4 percent), and Hispanics (4.1
percent) showed little or no change over the month. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 146,000
to 1.1 million in December. This measure is down from 2.0 million a year earlier. The long-
term unemployed accounted for 18.5 percent of all unemployed persons. (See table A-12.)

The employment-population ratio increased by 0.2 percentage point over the month to 60.1
percent. The labor force participation rate was little changed at 62.3 percent. Both measures
have shown little net change since early 2022. These measures are each 1.0 percentage point
below their values in February 2020, prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
(See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons, at 3.9 million, changed little
in December. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working
part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.
(See table A-8.)

The number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job fell by 352,000 to 5.2
million in December and is little different from its February 2020 level of 5.1 million.
These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for
work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job.
(See table A-1.)

Among those not in the labor force who wanted a job, the number of persons marginally
attached to the labor force declined by 231,000 to 1.3 million in December. These individuals
wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months
but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged
workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for
them, numbered 410,000 in December, essentially unchanged from the previous month.
(See Summary table A.)

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 223,000 in December. Notable job gains occurred
in leisure and hospitality, health care, construction, and social assistance. Payroll
employment rose by 4.5 million in 2022 (an average monthly gain of 375,000), less than the
increase of 6.7 million in 2021 (an average monthly gain of 562,000). (See table B-1.)

In December, employment in leisure and hospitality rose by 67,000. Employment continued to
trend up in food services and drinking places (+26,000); amusements, gambling, and recreation
(+25,000); and accommodation (+10,000). Leisure and hospitality added an average of 79,000
jobs per month in 2022, substantially less than the average gain of 196,000 jobs per month in
2021. Employment in the industry remains below its pre-pandemic February 2020 level by
932,000, or 5.5 percent.

Health care employment increased by 55,000 in December, with gains in ambulatory health care
services (+30,000), hospitals (+16,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+9,000).
Job growth in health care averaged 49,000 per month in 2022, considerably above the 2021
average monthly gain of 9,000.

Employment in construction increased by 28,000 in December, as specialty trade contractors
added 17,000 jobs. Construction employment increased by an average of 19,000 per month in
2022, little different than the average of 16,000 per month in 2021.

Social assistance added 20,000 jobs in December. Employment in individual and family services
continued to trend up over the month (+10,000). Job growth in social assistance averaged
17,000 per month in 2022, compared with the 2021 average of 13,000 per month.

Employment in the other services industry continued to trend up in December (+14,000).
Monthly job growth in other services averaged 14,000 in 2022, lower than the average of
24,000 per month in 2021. Employment in other services is below its February 2020 level by
174,000, or 2.9 percent.

In December, mining employment increased by 4,000, reflecting job growth in support
activities for mining (+5,000). Since a recent low in February 2021, mining employment has
grown by 104,000.

Employment in retail trade changed little in December (+9,000). Job growth in retail trade
averaged 16,000 per month in 2022, less than half the average growth of 35,000 per month in
2021.

Over the month, employment in manufacturing changed little (+8,000), as job gains in durable
goods (+24,000) were partially offset by losses in nondurable goods (-16,000). In 2022,
manufacturing added an average of 32,000 jobs per month, little different than the average
of 30,000 jobs per month in 2021.

In December, employment in transportation and warehousing changed little (+5,000). Air
transportation (+3,000) added jobs over the month, while employment continued to trend down
in couriers and messengers (-4,000) and in warehousing and storage (-3,000). In 2022, average
job growth in transportation and warehousing (+17,000) was about half the average job growth
in 2021 (+36,000).

In December, government employment was essentially unchanged (+3,000). Employment in state
government education declined by 24,000, reflecting strike activity among university
employees.

Employment in professional and business services remained little changed in December
(-6,000). Employment in temporary help services declined by 35,000 over the month and has
fallen by 111,000 since July. Job growth in professional and business services averaged
50,000 per month in 2022, roughly half of the average of 94,000 per month in 2021.

Over the month, employment showed little change in other major industries, including
wholesale trade, information, and financial activities.

In December, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by
9 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $32.82. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have
increased by 4.6 percent. In December, average hourly earnings of private-sector production
and nonsupervisory employees rose by 6 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $28.07. (See tables B-3
and B-8.)

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls declined by 0.1 hour to
34.3 hours in December. In manufacturing, the average workweek for all employees was little
changed at 40.1 hours, and overtime declined by 0.2 hour to 2.9 hours. The average workweek
for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 0.1
hour to 33.8 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised down by 21,000, from
+284,000 to +263,000, and the change for November was revised down by 7,000, from +263,000
to +256,000. With these revisions, employment gains in October and November combined were
28,000 lower than previously reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional reports
received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and
from the recalculation of seasonal factors.)

_____________
The Employment Situation for January is scheduled to be released on Friday,
February 3, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

_______________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Upcoming Changes to Household Survey Data |
| |
| Effective with the release of The Employment Situation for January 2023 on February |
| 3, 2023, new population controls will be used in the household survey estimation |
| process. These new controls reflect the annual update of population estimates by the |
| U.S. Census Bureau. In accordance with usual practice, historical data will not be |
| revised to incorporate the new controls. Consequently, household survey data for |
| January 2023 will not be directly comparable with data for December 2022 or earlier |
| periods. A table showing the effects of the new controls on the major labor force |
| series will be included in The Employment Situation for January 2023. |
|_______________________________________________________________________________________|

_______________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Upcoming Changes to Establishment Survey Data |
| |
| Effective with the release of The Employment Situation for January 2023 on February |
| 3, 2023, nonfarm payroll employment, hours, and earnings data from the establishment |
| survey will be revised to reflect the annual benchmark process and updated seasonal |
| adjustment factors. |
| |
| In addition, the basis for industry classification in the establishment survey will |
| be revised from the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to |
| NAICS 2022. Approximately 10 percent of employment will be reclassified into |
| different industries as a result of the NAICS revision. The conversion to NAICS 2022 |
| will result in major revisions reflecting content and coding changes in the retail |
| trade and information sectors, as well as minor revisions reflecting content and |
| coding changes within the mining and logging, manufacturing, wholesale trade, |
| financial activities, and other services sectors. Many industry titles and |
| descriptions will also be updated to better reflect official NAICS titles. |
| |
| Revisions due to both the NAICS 2022 conversion and the benchmark process will affect |
| more historical data than is typical in the annual benchmark process. The NAICS |
| revisions will be reflected in the entire time series of affected industries for both |
| seasonally adjusted and not adjusted data. Details of updated titles and new, |
| discontinued, and collapsed industries are available at |
| www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesnewseries.htm. |
| |
| For more information on NAICS 2022, visit www.census.gov/naics. |
|_______________________________________________________________________________________|

_______________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Upcoming Changes to The Employment Situation News Release |
| |
| Effective with the release of The Employment Situation for January 2023 on February |
| 3, 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will introduce changes to The Employment |
| Situation news release establishment survey data tables (Summary table B and tables |
| B-1 through B-9). A listing of all series changes resulting from the NAICS update, |
| including the industries published in these news release tables, is available on the |
| BLS website at www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesnewseries.htm. |
|_______________________________________________________________________________________|

Revision of Seasonally Adjusted Household Survey Data

At the end of each calendar year, BLS updates the seasonal adjustment factors for the
national labor force series derived from the household survey. As a result of this process,
seasonally adjusted data for January 2018 through November 2022 were subject to revision.
(Not seasonally adjusted data were not subject to revision.)

Table A shows the unemployment rates for January 2022 through November 2022, as first
published and as revised. The rate changed by one-tenth of a percentage point in 1 of the
11 months and was unchanged in the remaining 10 months. Revised seasonally adjusted data
for other major labor force series back to December 2021 appear in table B.

More information on this year’s revisions to seasonally adjusted household series is
available at www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cps-seas-adjustment-methodology.pdf. Detailed
information on the seasonal adjustment methodology is found at
www.bls.gov/cps/seasonal-adjustment-methodology.htm.

Historical data for the household series contained in the A tables (A-1 through A-16)
of this news release can be accessed at www.bls.gov/cps/cpsatabs.htm. Revised historical
seasonally adjusted data are available at www.bls.gov/cps/data.htm and
https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/ln/.

Table A. Seasonally adjusted unemployment rates in 2022 and change due to revision,
January – November 2022

Month As First Published As Revised Change

January…………. 4.0 4.0 0.0
February………… 3.8 3.8 0.0
March…………… 3.6 3.6 0.0
April…………… 3.6 3.6 0.0
May…………….. 3.6 3.6 0.0
June……………. 3.6 3.6 0.0
July……………. 3.5 3.5 0.0
August………….. 3.7 3.7 0.0
September……….. 3.5 3.5 0.0
October…………. 3.7 3.7 0.0
November………… 3.7 3.6 -0.1

HOUSEHOLD DATA
Table B. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age, seasonally adjusted [Numbers in thousands]

Employment status, sex, and age	2021	2022
	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	May	June	July	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
TOTAL
Civilian noninstitutional population(1)	262,136	263,202	263,324	263,444	263,559	263,679	263,835	264,012	264,184	264,356	264,535	264,708	264,844
Civilian labor force	162,410	163,633	163,862	164,301	163,950	164,278	164,002	163,990	164,714	164,619	164,646	164,527	164,966
Participation rate	62.0	62.2	62.2	62.4	62.2	62.3	62.2	62.1	62.3	62.3	62.2	62.2	62.3
Employed	156,081	157,122	157,590	158,328	157,982	158,299	158,057	158,272	158,694	158,850	158,593	158,527	159,244
Employment-population ratio	59.5	59.7	59.8	60.1	59.9	60.0	59.9	59.9	60.1	60.1	60.0	59.9	60.1
Unemployed	6,329	6,511	6,272	5,972	5,968	5,979	5,945	5,718	6,021	5,770	6,053	6,000	5,722
Unemployment rate	3.9	4.0	3.8	3.6	3.6	3.6	3.6	3.5	3.7	3.5	3.7	3.6	3.5
Men, 20 years and over
Civilian noninstitutional population(1)	118,520	119,612	119,669	119,726	119,780	119,831	119,899	119,977	120,058	120,140	120,225	120,301	120,360
Civilian labor force	82,968	83,885	84,264	84,266	84,200	84,165	84,029	83,905	84,192	84,602	84,606	84,525	84,694
Participation rate	70.0	70.1	70.4	70.4	70.3	70.2	70.1	69.9	70.1	70.4	70.4	70.3	70.4
Employed	79,958	80,695	81,293	81,389	81,236	81,331	81,210	81,185	81,263	81,816	81,776	81,698	82,033
Employment-population ratio	67.5	67.5	67.9	68.0	67.8	67.9	67.7	67.7	67.7	68.1	68.0	67.9	68.2
Unemployed	3,010	3,190	2,971	2,877	2,963	2,834	2,818	2,720	2,929	2,786	2,829	2,827	2,661
Unemployment rate	3.6	3.8	3.5	3.4	3.5	3.4	3.4	3.2	3.5	3.3	3.3	3.3	3.1
Women, 20 years and over
Civilian noninstitutional population(1)	127,167	126,570	126,631	126,691	126,749	126,802	126,872	126,951	127,034	127,117	127,204	127,283	127,345
Civilian labor force	73,498	73,517	73,482	73,736	73,508	73,877	73,721	73,956	74,098	73,729	73,752	73,532	73,930
Participation rate	57.8	58.1	58.0	58.2	58.0	58.3	58.1	58.3	58.3	58.0	58.0	57.8	58.1
Employed	70,831	70,872	70,810	71,275	71,144	71,388	71,280	71,659	71,676	71,457	71,218	71,088	71,531
Employment-population ratio	55.7	56.0	55.9	56.3	56.1	56.3	56.2	56.4	56.4	56.2	56.0	55.9	56.2
Unemployed	2,667	2,645	2,672	2,462	2,365	2,489	2,441	2,297	2,422	2,272	2,534	2,444	2,398
Unemployment rate	3.6	3.6	3.6	3.3	3.2	3.4	3.3	3.1	3.3	3.1	3.4	3.3	3.2
Both sexes, 16 to 19 years
Civilian noninstitutional population(1)	16,449	17,020	17,024	17,027	17,030	17,046	17,064	17,084	17,091	17,099	17,107	17,124	17,139
Civilian labor force	5,944	6,231	6,116	6,298	6,242	6,235	6,252	6,129	6,424	6,288	6,288	6,469	6,343
Participation rate	36.1	36.6	35.9	37.0	36.7	36.6	36.6	35.9	37.6	36.8	36.8	37.8	37.0
Employed	5,292	5,555	5,487	5,665	5,603	5,579	5,566	5,428	5,754	5,576	5,598	5,740	5,680
Employment-population ratio	32.2	32.6	32.2	33.3	32.9	32.7	32.6	31.8	33.7	32.6	32.7	33.5	33.1
Unemployed	652	676	628	634	640	656	686	701	670	712	690	729	662
Unemployment rate	11.0	10.9	10.3	10.1	10.2	10.5	11.0	11.4	10.4	11.3	11.0	11.3	10.4
Footnotes (1) The population figures are not adjusted for seasonal variation.
NOTE: Seasonally adjusted data have been revised to reflect updated seasonal adjustment factors.