August Job Report, By The Numbers

Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, issued the following statement today on the employment situation in August

The Employment Situation in August
Over the last four years, we've cleared away the rubble from the financial crisis and begun to lay a new foundation for stronger, more durable economic growth. While continued solid job gains, today’s employment report is another sign of progress, the report also underscores the need to continue pursuing policies that move our economy forward and restore middle class security

Five Key Points in Today’s Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
 1. Private sector employment has risen for 42 consecutive months, with businesses adding a total of 7.5 million jobs over that period. Today we learned that total non-farm payroll employment rose by 169,000 in August, with the private sector accounting for 152,000 of that gain. Private sector job growth was revised down for June (to 194,000) and July (to 127,000), so that over the past three months, private sector employment has risen by an average of 158,000 per month.



2. The overall unemployment rate ticked down 0.1 percentage point to 7.3 percent, the lowest since December 2008, with long-term unemployment remaining elevated. Although the unemployment rate remains too high, it has been trending down steadily since late 2009. The lingering elevation in the unemployment rate primarily reflects a large number of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for more than 27 weeks), while the share of the labor force that has been unemployed for less than 27 weeks has mostly returned to its average during the 2001-07 expansion period. That's why the administration continues to push for measures to spur job creation now and put the long term unemployed back to work. 



3. The economy has been consistently adding jobs at a pace of more than 2 million per year. Over the twelve months ending August 2013, total non-farm payroll employment rose by 2.2 million, similar to the gain in the year-earlier period. While the month-to-month figures can be volatile, the year-over-year changes indicate that the recovery has been durable in the face of several headwinds that have emerged in recent years. The separate household survey is more volatile month-to-month, but over a longer period, it tells the same story. When adjusted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to be comparable to the concept of employment used in the payroll measure, household employment has risen by 2.4 million over the twelve months ending August 2013.  



View the full statement HERE.

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