Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 6.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Job gains occurred in professional and business services and in health care.
In August, both the unemployment rate (6.1 percent) and the number of unemployed
persons (9.6 million) changed little. Over the year, the unemployment rate and
the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.1 percentage points and 1.7 million,
respectively.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates in August showed little or
no change for adult men (5.7 percent), adult women (5.7 percent), teenagers (19.6
percent), whites (5.3 percent), blacks (11.4 percent), and Hispanics (7.5 percent).
The jobless rate for Asians was 4.5 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little
changed from a year earlier.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined
by 192,000 to 3.0 million in August. These individuals accounted for 31.2 percent
of the unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has
declined by 1.3 million.
