August Employment Report: 151,000 Jobs, 4.9% Unemployment Rate

From the BLS:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 151,000 in August, and the unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in several service-providing industries.
...
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised down from +292,000 to +271,000, and the change for July was revised up from +255,000 to +275,000. With these revisions, employment gains in June and July combined were 1,000 less than previously reported.
...
In August, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents to $25.73. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.4 percent.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the monthly change in payroll jobs, ex-Census (meaning the impact of the decennial Census temporary hires and layoffs is removed - mostly in 2010 - to show the underlying payroll changes).

Total payrolls increased by 151 thousand in August (private payrolls increased 126 thousand).

Payrolls for June and July were revised down by a combined 1 thousand.

This graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.

In August, the year-over-year change was 2.45 million jobs.  A solid gain.


The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.

The Labor Force Participation Rate was unchanged in August at 62.8%. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force.   A large portion of the recent decline in the participation rate is due to demographics.

The Employment-Population ratio was unchanged at 59.7% (black line).

I'll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.

The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate was unchanged in August at 4.9%.

This was below expectations of 175,000 jobs. Still a decent report.

I'll have much more later ...

from
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CalculatedRisk/~3/8-yFOiU5Oqk/august-employment-report-151000-jobs-49.html