September Employment and Unemployment: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a report today on payroll employment and unemployment for September (pdf summary available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf). Highlights of the report:

Unemployment Rate

• The unemployment rate held steady at 9.1% in September. 
• The number of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for 27 weeks or longer) rose to 6.2 million in September, from 6.0 million in August.  The percent of long-term unemployed also increased to 44.6% in September, from 42.9% in August. 
• The labor force rose by 423,000 in September after having risen by 366,000 in August.  The labor force participation rate edged up to 64.2% in September, from 64.0% in August. 
• The number of unemployed persons was unchanged at 14.0 million in September.

Payroll Employment

• Total non-farm payroll employment rose by 103,000 in September, following a gain of 57,000 in August (revised upwards from no change) and a gain of 127,000 in July (revised upwards from 85,000).  The gain of 103,000 was above expectations for a gain of about 60,000 payroll jobs, but fell short of the 130,000 new jobs needed to keep up with population growth.  
  • The return of about 45,000 telecommunications workers who were on strike in August contributed to the 103,000 job gain.
  • Private sector employment rose by 137,000 while government employment fell by 34,000.
  • The largest private sector employment gains came from professional and business services (+48,000), health care (+44,000), construction (+26,000), and information (+34,000, including the 45,000 previously striking workers).  The largest losses were in government (-34,000), manufacturing    (-13,000), and retail trade (-9,000). 
  • The average workweek for all private nonfarm employees edged up 0.1 hour to 34.3 hours.