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Hurricane Beryl had no visible effects on employment and unemployment data

The unemployment rate in America rose to 4.3 per cent while payroll employment went up by 114,000.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that employment continued to trend up in health care, construction, transportation and warehousing, while jobs contracted in in the information technology sector.

This information is statistics from two monthly surveys: The household survey, which measures labour force status, including unemployment and establishment survey, which measures earnings by industry. The BLS says Hurricane Beryl had no visible effects on the national employment and unemployment data for July.

Unemployment changes

The unemployment rate rose by 0.5 percentage point to 4.3 percent in July, and the number of unemployed people increased by 352,000 to 7.2 million. These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.5 percent, and the number of unemployed people was 5.9 million.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.0 percent) and Whites (3.8 percent) increased in July.

The jobless rates for adult women (3.8 percent), teenagers (12.4 percent), Blacks (6.3 percent), Asians (3.7 percent), and Hispanics (5.3 percent) showed little or no change over the month. Among the unemployed, the number of people on temporary layoff increased by 249,000 to 1,1 million in July.

The number of permanent job losers changed little, at 1.7 million. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little at 1.5 million in July. This measure is up from 1.2 million a year earlier.

The long term unemployed accounted for 21.6 percent of all unemployed people in July. The number of people not in the labour force who currently want a job increased by 366,00 to 5.6 million in July, largely offsetting a decline in the previous month.

These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were not able to take a job. Among those not in the labour force who were in search of a job, the number of people marginally attached to the labour force, at 1.6 million, was little changed in July.

These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, also changed little, at 405,000 in July.

Employment changes

The labour force participation rate, at 62.7 per cent, changed a little in July and was little by little changed over the year. The employment-population ratio was little changed at 60.0 percent in July but is down by 0.4 percentage points over the year.

The number of people employed part-time for economic reasons rose by 46,000 to 4.6 million in July. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part-time because their house had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.

Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up to 114,000 in July, below the average monthly gain of 215,000 over the prior 12 months. In July, employment continued to trend up in health care, in construction, and in transportation and warehousing, while information lost jobs. Health care added 55,000 jobs in July, similar to the average monthly gain of 63,000 over the prior 12 months.

In July, employment rose in home health care services (+22,000), hospitals (+20,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+9,000). Employment continued to trend up in construction in July (+25,000), in line with the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months (+19,000).

Employment among specialty trade contractors continued its upward trend in July (+19,000). In July, employment continued to trend up in transportation and warehousing (+14,000), with job gains in couriers and messengers (+11,000) and warehousing and storage (+11,00).

These gains were partially offset by a job loss in transit and ground passenger transportation (-11,000). Transportation and warehousing have added 119,000 jobs since a recent low in January of this year.

Employment in social assistance continued its upward trend in July (+9,000), but in at a slower pace than the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months (+23,000).

Information technology employment declined by 20,000 in July but has changed little over the year.

Earning changes

In July, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 8 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $25.07. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.5 percent. In July, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 9 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $30.14.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down from 0.1 to 34.2 hours in July. In manufacturing, the average workweek edged down by 0.2 hours to 39.9 hours, and overtime edged down by 0.1 hours to 2.8 hours.

The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 0.1 hour to 33.7 hours. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised down by 2,000, from +218,000 to +216,000, and the change for June was revised down by 27,000, from +206,000 to +179,000.

With these revisions, employment in May and June combined is $29,000 lower than previously reported.