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Home Front: Politix
Payroll employment up; Labor force down in Aug
2004-09-03
From the BLS site, EFL:
Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 144,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 5.4 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Over the month, job growth occurred in several service-providing industries
[also the payroll job growth in July was adjusted up quite a bit].
Both the number of unemployed persons, 8.0 million, and the unemployment rate, 5.4 percent, were little changed from July to August
[the increase in employment in the household survey was only about 21,000 and there was a decrease of about 150,000 in the labor force].
The jobless rate is down from its recent high of 6.3 percent in June 2003.
With the two hurricanes hitting Florida, I think the Sept figures to be released in Oct will be probably need to be caveated because several hundred thousand payroll jobs will be disrupted. The household survey probably won't be affected as much.
Posted by:mhw

#4  Yes the unemployment rate is based on the household survey.

The payroll survey, by definition, is not going to give an estimate of the number of the unemployed.
Posted by: mhw   2004-09-03 1:13:32 PM  

#3  But the unemployment rate is based upon the household survey, isn't it?
This news release presents statistics from two major surveys, the Current
Population Survey (household survey) and the Current Employment Statistics
survey (establishment survey). The household survey provides the
information on the labor force, employment, and unemployment that appears
in the A tables, marked HOUSEHOLD DATA. It is a sample survey of about
60,000 households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS).

The establishment survey provides the information on the employment,
hours, and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls that appears in the
B tables, marked ESTABLISHMENT DATA. This information is collected from
payroll records by BLS in cooperation with State agencies. The sample
includes about 160,000 businesses and government agencies covering ap-
proximately 400,000 individual worksites. The active sample includes
about one-third of all nonfarm payroll workers. The sample is drawn
from a sampling frame of unemployment insurance tax accounts.
BLS

The household survey shows an increase of 21,000 for August and an increase of 629,000 jobs for July.

The number of unemployed is at its lowest level since November 2001.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2004-09-03 1:08:56 PM  

#2  OK Chuck

but 131,475,000 is the estimate for the number of payroll jobs in Aug 2004 and 132,388 is the estimate of payroll jobs in Jan 2001.

We've been over the difference between the household and the payroll numbers before.
Posted by: mhw   2004-09-03 12:12:40 PM  

#1  Number of civilians employed January 31, 2001: 137,581,000
Number of civilians employed August 31, 2004: 139,681,000
Number of jobs gained: 2,100,000

Graphs here and here.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2004-09-03 12:02:08 PM  

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