Employment Situation Shows Little Change in July

August 5, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 117,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.1%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Job gains occurred in health care, retail trade, manufacturing, and mining. Government employment continued to trend down.  

Since April, the unemployment rate has shown little definitive movement. The labor force, at 153.2 million, was little changed in July.  

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (9%), adult women (7.9%), teenagers (25%), whites (8.1%), blacks (15.9%), and Hispanics (11.3%) showed little or no change in July. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.7%, not seasonally adjusted.   

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged over the month at 34.3 hours. The manufacturing workweek and factory overtime for all employees also were unchanged at 40.3 hours and 3.1 hours, respectively. In July, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls was 33.6 hours for the sixth consecutive month.  

In July, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 10 cents, or 0.4%, to $23.13. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.3%. In July, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 8 cents, or 0.4%, to $19.52.  

The BLS report is at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm.

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