The Employment Situation: November 2007

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THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: NOVEMBER 2007

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend up in November (94,000), and
the unemployment rate held at 4.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the
U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job growth continued in professional
and technical services, health care, and food services. Employment continued to
decline in manufacturing and also fell in several housing-related industries,
including construction, credit intermediation, and real estate. Average hourly
earnings rose by 8 cents over the month.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The number of unemployed persons (7.2 million) was about unchanged in November,
and the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent for the third month in a row. A year ear-
lier, the number of unemployed persons was 6.8 million, and the jobless rate was 4.5
percent. (See table A-1.)

Unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (4.1 percent), adult
women (4.1 percent), teenagers (16.3 percent), whites (4.2 percent), blacks (8.4
percent), and Hispanics (5.7 percent)--showed little or no change in November.
The unemployment rate for Asians was 3.6 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See
tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

In November, total employment increased by 696,000 to 146.7 million. The em-
ployment-population ratio rose by 0.3 percentage point to 63.0 percent; it was
still below its most recent peak of 63.4 percent in December 2006. The civilian
labor force rose to 153.9 million over the month, and the labor force participa-
tion rate edged up to 66.1 percent. (See table A-1.)

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

Nearly 1.4 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached
to the labor force in November, about the same as a year earlier. These indi-
viduals wanted and were available to work and had looked for a job sometime dur-
ing 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 349,000 discouraged workers in November, unchanged from a
year earlier. Discouraged workers were not currently looking for work specifi-
cally because they believed no jobs were available for them. The other 1.0 mil-
lion persons marginally attached to the labor force in November had not searched
for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance
and family responsibilities.