Washington, DC….Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in food services and drinking places, professional and business services, and health care.
Household Survey Data, Both the unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 7.0 million, changed little in July. After declining earlier in the year, the unemployment rate has shown little movement in recent months.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.0 percent), adult
women (4.0 percent), teenagers (13.2 percent), Whites (3.8 percent), Blacks (7.4 percent),
Asians (3.8 percent), and Hispanics (5.1 percent) showed little or no change in July.
(See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Among the unemployed, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or
more) was little changed at 1.8 million in July and accounted for 25.9 percent of the
unemployed. (See table A-12.)

The labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, changed little in July and has shown
little movement on net over the past year. The employment-population ratio (60.2 percent)
was also little changed in July but is up by 0.4 percentage point over the year.
(See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as
involuntary part-time workers), at 5.3 million, was essentially unchanged in July. These
individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because
their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.
(See table A-8.)

In July, 1.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, down by 321,000
from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in
the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in
the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for
work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 536,000 discouraged workers in July, essentially
unchanged over the year. Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work
because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.1 million persons
marginally attached to the labor force in July had not searched for work for reasons such
as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000 in July. Job gains occurred in food
services and drinking places, professional and business services, and health care.
Employment growth has averaged 184,000 per month thus far this year, in line with the
average monthly gain in 2016 (+187,000). (See table B-1.)

Employment in food services and drinking places rose by 53,000 in July. The industry has
added 313,000 jobs over the year.

Professional and business services added 49,000 jobs in July, in line with its average
monthly job gain over the prior 12 months.

In July, health care employment increased by 39,000, with job gains occurring in ambulatory
health care services (+30,000) and hospitals (+7,000). Health care has added 327,000 jobs
over the past year.

Employment in mining was essentially unchanged in July (+1,000). From a recent low in
October 2016 through June, the industry had added an average of 7,000 jobs per month.

Employment in other major industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale
trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities,
and government, showed little change over the month.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.5
hours in July. In manufacturing, the workweek was also unchanged at 40.9 hours, and
overtime remained at 3.3 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory
employees on private nonfarm payrolls was 33.7 hours for the fourth consecutive month.
(See tables B-2 and B-7.)

In July, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 9
cents to $26.36. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 65 cents, or 2.5
percent. In July, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory
employees increased by 6 cents to $22.10. (See tables B-3 and B-8.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised down from +152,000 to
+145,000, and the change for June was revised up from +222,000 to +231,000. With these
revisions, employment gains in May and June combined were 2,000 more 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. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 195,000 per month.

_____________
The Employment Situation for August is scheduled to be released on Friday,
September 1, 2017, at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).

________________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| 2017 CES Preliminary Benchmark Revision will be released on September 6, 2017 |
| |
| Each year, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey estimates are benchmarked |
| to comprehensive counts of employment from the Quarterly Census of Employment and |
| Wages (QCEW) for the month of March. These counts are derived from state unemployment |
| insurance (UI) tax records that nearly all employers are required to file. On |
| September 6, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will |
| release the preliminary estimate of the upcoming annual benchmark revision to the |
| establishment survey employment series. This is the same day the first-quarter 2017 |
| data from the QCEW will be issued. Preliminary benchmark revisions for all major |
| industry sectors, as well as total nonfarm and total private levels, will be available |
| on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesprelbmk.htm. |
| |
| The final benchmark revision will be issued with the publication of the January 2018 |
| Employment Situation news release in February 2018. |
|________________________________________________________________________________________|

• • Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted
  • Employment Situation Summary Table B. Establishment data, seasonally adjusted
  • Employment Situation Frequently Asked Questions
  • Employment Situation Technical Note
  • Table A-1. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age
  • Table A-2. Employment status of the civilian population by race, sex, and age
  • Table A-3. Employment status of the Hispanic or Latino population by sex and age
  • Table A-4. Employment status of the civilian population 25 years and over by educational attainment
  • Table A-5. Employment status of the civilian population 18 years and over by veteran status, period of service, and sex, not seasonally adjusted
  • Table A-6. Employment status of the civilian population by sex, age, and disability status, not seasonally adjusted
  • Table A-7. Employment status of the civilian population by nativity and sex, not seasonally adjusted
  • Table A-8. Employed persons by class of worker and part-time status
  • Table A-9. Selected employment indicators
  • Table A-10. Selected unemployment indicators, seasonally adjusted
  • Table A-11. Unemployed persons by reason for unemployment
  • Table A-12. Unemployed persons by duration of unemployment
  • Table A-13. Employed and unemployed persons by occupation, not seasonally adjusted
  • Table A-14. Unemployed persons by industry and class of worker, not seasonally adjusted
  • Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization
  • Table A-16. Persons not in the labor force and multiple jobholders by sex, not seasonally adjusted
  • Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail
  • Table B-2. Average weekly hours and overtime of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted
  • Table B-3. Average hourly and weekly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted
  • Table B-4. Indexes of aggregate weekly hours and payrolls for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted
  • Table B-5. Employment of women on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted
  • Table B-6. Employment of production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted(1)
  • Table B-7. Average weekly hours and overtime of production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted(1)
  • Table B-8. Average hourly and weekly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted(1)
  • Table B-9. Indexes of aggregate weekly hours and payrolls for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted(1)

• Access to historical data for the “A” tables of the Employment Situation Release
• Access to historical data for the “B” tables of the Employment Situation Release
• HTML version of the entire news release