August Employment and Unemployment: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a report today on employment and unemployment for August (pdf summary available). Highlights of the report:

Unemployment Rate

• The unemployment rate edged up to 9.6% in August, from 9.5% in July.
• The unemployment rate was 5.0% at the start of the recession in December, 2007.
• The percentage of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for 27 weeks or longer) declined by 323,000 to 6.2 million, or a level of 42.0% in August. 
• The size of the labor force grew by 550,000 in August, but remains 650,000 below its peak level in May, 2009.
• There were 14.9 million unemployed persons in August.

Payroll Employment

• Total non-farm payroll employment fell by 54,000 in August, following a loss of 54,000 in July (revised from a loss of 131,000) and a loss of 175,000 in June (revised from a loss of 221,000).  
  • The loss of temporary Census jobs accounted for 114,000 of the net decline in jobs. 
  • Private sector employment rose by 67,000 in August.  Healthcare (+28,000) and temporary help services (+17,000) accounted for the largest private sector job gains while manufacturing (-27,000) accounted for the largest private sector loss. 
  • The average workweek was unchanged at 34.2 hours for all private nonfarm employees. 
  • Employment has fallen by 7.6 million since the start of the recession in December, 2007.