The U.S. economy added 156,000 jobs in August, with labor force participation remaining 62.9 percent while unemployment rate recording 4.4 percent.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data on Friday, reporting that manufacturing created 36,000 jobs, construction added 28,000 jobs while healthcare generated 20,000 jobs in the last month.
The number of unemployed persons in the country is 7.1 million, showing little change. After declining earlier in the year, the unemployment rate has been either 4.3 or 4.4 percent since April, data shows.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas in the last few days, had no discernible effect on the employment and unemployment |data for August. Household survey data collection was completed before the storm.
Here are some key statistics as released by the Bureau:
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.1 percent), adult women (4.0 percent), teenagers (13.6 percent), Whites (3.9 percent), Blacks (7.7 percent), Asians (4.0 percent), and Hispanics (5.2 percent) showed little or no change in August.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged in August at 1.7 million and accounted for 24.7 percent of the unemployed.
The labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, was unchanged in August and has shown little movement on net over the past year. The employment-population ratio, at 60.1 percent, was little changed over the month and thus far this year.
The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 5.3 million in August and has shown little movement in recent months.
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.
In August, 1.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, about the same as a year earlier. These 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.
Among the marginally attached, there were 448,000 discouraged workers in August, down 128,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) 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 August had not searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.
Employment growth has averaged 176,000 per month thus far this year, about in line with the average monthly gain of 187,000 in 2016.
Employment in professional and technical services continued to trend up in August (+22,000) and has grown by 262,000 over the last 12 months. In August, job gains occurred in computer systems design and related services (+8,000).
Health care employment continued on an upward trend over the month (+20,000) and has risen by 328,000 over the year. Employment in hospitals edged up over the month
(+6,000).
Mining continued to add jobs in August (+7,000), with all of the growth in support activities for mining. Since a recent low in October 2016, employment in mining has risen by 62,000, or 10 percent.
Employment in food services and drinking places changed little in August (+9,000), following an increase of 53,000 in July. Over the year, the industry has added 283,000 jobs.
Employment in other major industries, including wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, and government, showed little change over the month.
