The number of
long-term unemployed
(those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose by 584,000 over themonth to 5.0 million. In July, 1 in 3 unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See tableA-9.)The
civilian labor force participation rate
declined by 0.2 percentage point in July to 65.5 percent.The
employment-population ratio
, at 59.4 percent, was little changed over the month but has declinedby 3.3 percentage points since the recession began in December 2007. (See table A-1.)The number of persons working
part time for economic reasons
(sometimes referred to as involuntarypart-time workers) was little changed in July at 8.8 million. The number of such workers rose sharply inthe fall and winter but has been little changed for 4 consecutive months. (See table A-5.)About 2.3 million persons were
marginally attached to the labor force
in July, 709,000 more than ayear earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals, who were not in the labor force,wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. Theywere not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding thesurvey. (See table A-13.)Among the marginally attached, there were 796,000
discouraged workers
in July, up by 335,000 overthe past 12 months. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not cur-rently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.5 million per-sons marginally attached to the labor force in July had not searched for work in the 4 weeks precedingthe survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.
Establishment Survey Data
Total
nonfarm payroll employment
declined by 247,000 in July. From May to July, job losses aver-aged 331,000 per month, compared with losses averaging 645,000 per month from November to April.Since December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 6.7 million. (See table B-1.)Employment in
construction
declined by 76,000 in July, about in line with the average for the past 3months (-73,000). Employment had decreased by 117,000 a month on average from November to April.
Manufacturing
employment fell by 52,000 in July and has declined by 2.0 million since the recessionbegan. In motor vehicles and parts, fewer workers than usual were laid off in July for seasonal retooling.As a result, the estimate of employment for the industry rose by 28,000 after seasonal adjustment. Inlarge part, July's seasonally-adjusted increase reflects the fact that previous job cuts had been so exten-sive that there were fewer workers to lay off during the seasonal shutdown. Elsewhere in manufacturing,several industries continued to lose jobs in July, including machinery (-15,000) and fabricated metalproducts (-14,000).In July,
retail trade
employment declined by 44,000. Job losses in the industry had averaged 27,000 permonth over the prior 3 months. Employment in
wholesale trade
fell by 19,000 in July, with the majorityof the decline occurring among durable goods wholesalers.Employment in
professional and business services
continued to trend down in July (-38,000); theindustry has shed 1.5 million jobs since the start of the recession. Within professional and business ser-vices, employment in the temporary help industry edged down in July. While temporary help has lost844,000 jobs since the recession began, the declines have lessened substantially over the past 3 months.
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