Financial Options

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that nonfarm payroll employment grew by 215,000 in November. Over the month, job growth was widespread, with large gains in construction and food services. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5%.

The November employment increase follows little job
growth in September (+17,000) and October (+44,000), as
revised. The September weakness was clearly associated with
the devastating direct effects of Hurricane Katrina, and it
is possible that October’s job growth was held down somewhat
by the indirect effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. To
put the November increase in perspective, from January
through August of this year, payroll employment growth
averaged 196,000 per month.

Looking at some of the industry detail from the payroll
survey, there were over-the-month gains across a wide array
of industries. Construction employment rose by 37,000 in
November, following a gain of 35,000 in October. For the 12
months prior to October, construction employment expanded by
an average of 24,000 per month. Some of the recent job
gains in construction reflect rebuilding and clean-up
efforts following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. In
November, for example, there was a substantial employment
increase in heavy construction, which includes utility,
road, and other major infrastructure work.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The unemployment rate was unchanged in November at 5.0 percent. The jobless
rate has ranged between 4.9 and 5.1 percent since May. The number of unemployed
persons, 7.6 million, was essentially unchanged in November. The unemployment
rates for adult men (4.3 percent), adult women (4.6 percent), teenagers (17.2
percent), whites (4.3 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (6.0 percent) showed
little or no change in November. The jobless rates for blacks (10.6 percent)
and, specifically, for adult black women (9.1 percent), rose over the month.
In November, the unemployment rate for Asians was 3.6 percent, not seasonally
adjusted.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Department of Labor

Statement of Kathleen P. Utgoff, Commissioner, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Friday, December 2, 2005

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 215,000 in November,
and the unemployment rate, at 5.0 percent, was unchanged
over the month.

The November employment increase follows little job
growth in September (+17,000) and October (+44,000), as
revised. The September weakness was clearly associated with
the devastating direct effects of Hurricane Katrina, and it
is possible that October’s job growth was held down somewhat
by the indirect effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. To
put the November increase in perspective, from January
through August of this year, payroll employment growth
averaged 196,000 per month.

Looking at some of the industry detail from the payroll
survey, there were over-the-month gains across a wide array
of industries. Construction employment rose by 37,000 in
November, following a gain of 35,000 in October. For the 12
months prior to October, construction employment expanded by
an average of 24,000 per month. Some of the recent job
gains in construction reflect rebuilding and clean-up
efforts following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. In
November, for example, there was a substantial employment
increase in heavy construction, which includes utility,
road, and other major infrastructure work.

Education and health services added 36,000 jobs over
the month, in line with recent trend growth in the industry.
The bulk of November’s job growth occurred in health care
and social assistance (+27,000). Over the 12 months ending
in November, 263,000 jobs have been added in health care and
74,000 jobs in social assistance.

In November, job growth resumed in food services and
drinking places (+39,000). Employment fell in this industry
in each of the prior 2 months; at least some of these de-
clines were hurricane related. For the 12 months ending
in August, employment in food services expanded by 283,000.

In professional and business services, job gains
continued in architectural and engineering services,
computer systems design, and management and consulting
services. Job growth in temporary help services was weak
for the second month in a row.

Wholesale trade employment continued to trend up;
nearly all of the over-the-month gain occurred in durable
goods distribution. In retail trade, overall employment was
basically unchanged in November. A job gain in building
material and garden supply stores was offset by a loss among
automobile dealers. For auto dealers, the November job
decline was the second in a row.

The number of factory jobs edged up in November, re-
flecting small gains in a number of durable goods manu-
facturing industries. Noteworthy increases occurred in
wood products and in computer and electronics. The factory
workweek fell by 0.2 hour over the month, following a
0.3-hour increase in October.

Average hourly earnings of production or nonsupervisory
workers on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents in
November to $16.32, following a 10-cent jump in October (as
revised). Over the year, average hourly earnings were up by
3.2 percent.

Looking at some of the measures obtained from the
survey of households, the unemployment rate, at 5.0 percent,
was unchanged in November. The jobless rate has held at or
near this level since May. Unemployment rates for most
major worker groups showed little or no change over the
month, although the rate for blacks rose to 10.6 percent.
The labor force participation rate held steady over the
month at 66.1 percent, and the employment-population ratio
was essentially unchanged at 62.8 percent.

Last month we released our first set of data from a
special series of questions added to the household survey to
identify and gather information from survey respondents who
had evacuated from their homes because of Hurricane Katrina.
As we emphasized last month, the estimates are not repre-
sentative of all evacuees, but only those who were in-
terviewed through normal household survey procedures. We
do not gather information on those evacuees who remain
outside the scope of the survey, such as those currently
living in hotels or shelters.

The November update of these data indicates that there
were nearly 900,000 persons age 16 and over who evacuated
from where they were living in August due to Hurricane
Katrina. Half of these persons had returned to the home
from which they had evacuated by November; the other half
had not returned.

Of the 900,000 evacuees identified in the November
survey, a little more than half were in the labor force with
an unemployment rate of 20.5 percent. Consistent with the
October estimates, the November data show that the jobless
rate for those who had not returned home (27.8 percent) was
well above the rate for those who had returned to their
August place of residence (12.5 percent).

In summary, employment rose in November (+215,000),
following 2 months when job growth was held down by the
direct and indirect effects of the hurricanes that struck
the Gulf Coast. The unemployment rate held at 5.0 percent.

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: NOVEMBER 2005

Nonfarm payroll employment grew by 215,000 in November, and the unemployment
rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S.
Department of Labor reported today. Over the month, job growth was widespread,
with large gains in construction and food services.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The unemployment rate was unchanged in November at 5.0 percent. The jobless
rate has ranged between 4.9 and 5.1 percent since May. The number of unemployed
persons, 7.6 million, was essentially unchanged in November. The unemployment
rates for adult men (4.3 percent), adult women (4.6 percent), teenagers (17.2
percent), whites (4.3 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (6.0 percent) showed
little or no change in November. The jobless rates for blacks (10.6 percent)
and, specifically, for adult black women (9.1 percent), rose over the month.
In November, the unemployment rate for Asians was 3.6 percent, not seasonally
adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

Total employment, 142.6 million, and the civilian labor force, 150.2 million,
were little changed in November. The employment-population ratio also was little
changed over the month at 62.8 percent, and the labor force participation rate
held at 66.1 percent. (See table A-1.)

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| Hurricane Katrina |
| |
| In November, the state population controls used for the household |
| survey were adjusted to account for displacements due to Hurricane |
| Katrina. These adjustments had a minimal impact on the national |
| household survey estimates. Information again was collected in the |
| household survey on the labor force status of people who had to eva- |
| cuate due to Hurricane Katrina. (See table B on page 3.) |
| |
| For the establishment survey, BLS resumed normal estimation |
| procedures in November. The procedures had been modified in |
| September and October to account for low response rates in Katrina- |
| affected areas. In November, the number and type of responses from |
| the Katrina-affected areas were deemed acceptable for a return to |
| standard procedures. |
| |
| For more information on household and establishment survey |
| procedures and estimates for November 2005, see http://www.bls.gov/ |
| katrina/cpscesquestions.htm on the BLS Web site or call (202) 691-6378|
| for information about the household survey, and (202) 691-6555 for |
| information about the establishment survey. |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

- 2 -

Table A. Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
______________________________________________________________________________
| Quarterly | |
| averages | Monthly data |
|_________________|__________________________| Oct.-
Category | 2005 | 2005 | Nov.
|_________________|__________________________|change
| II | III | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. |
________________________|________|________|________|________|________|_______
HOUSEHOLD DATA | Labor force status
|____________________________________________________
Civilian labor force.....| 149,003| 149,835| 150,093| 150,079| 150,176| 97
Employment.............| 141,404| 142,319| 142,432| 142,646| 142,594| -52
Unemployment...........| 7,599| 7,516| 7,661| 7,433| 7,582| 149
Not in labor force.......| 76,671| 76,587| 76,600| 76,880| 77,028| 148
|________|________|________|________|________|_______
| Unemployment rates
|____________________________________________________
All workers..............| 5.1| 5.0| 5.1| 5.0| 5.0| 0.0
Adult men..............| 4.4| 4.4| 4.5| 4.3| 4.3| .0
Adult women............| 4.6| 4.6| 4.6| 4.6| 4.6| .0
Teenagers..............| 17.4| 16.1| 15.8| 15.9| 17.2| 1.3
White..................| 4.4| 4.3| 4.5| 4.4| 4.3| -.1
Black or African | | | | | |
American.............| 10.3| 9.5| 9.4| 9.1| 10.6| 1.5
Hispanic or Latino | | | | | |
ethnicity............| 6.1| 5.9| 6.5| 5.8| 6.0| .2
|________|________|________|________|________|_______
ESTABLISHMENT DATA | Employment
|____________________________________________________
Nonfarm employment.......| 133,429| 133,969| 134,030|p134,074|p134,289| p215
Goods-producing(1).....| 22,134| 22,152| 22,164| p22,218| p22,268| p50
Construction.........| 7,217| 7,262| 7,284| p7,319| p7,356| p37
Manufacturing........| 14,292| 14,258| 14,244| p14,259| p14,270| p11
Service-providing(1)...| 111,295| 111,817| 111,866|p111,856|p112,021| p165
Retail trade(2)......| 15,180| 15,221| 15,183| p15,186| p15,194| p9
Professional and | | | | | |
business services..| 16,867| 16,995| 17,037| p17,043| p17,072| p29
Education and health | | | | | |
services...........| 17,289| 17,417| 17,455| p17,445| p17,481| p36
Leisure and | | | | | |
hospitality........| 12,741| 12,798| 12,762| p12,748| p12,777| p29
Government...........| 21,753| 21,841| 21,856| p21,851| p21,872| p21
|________|________|________|________|________|_______
| Hours of work(3)
|____________________________________________________
Total private............| 33.7| 33.7| 33.8| p33.8| p33.7| p-0.1
Manufacturing..........| 40.4| 40.6| 40.7| p41.0| p40.8| p-.2
Overtime.............| 4.4| 4.5| 4.5| p4.6| p4.5| p-.1
|________|________|________|________|________|_______
| Indexes of aggregate weekly hours (2002=100)(3)
|____________________________________________________
Total private............| 102.4| 103.0| 103.2| p103.3| p103.2| p-0.1
|________|________|________|________|________|_______
| Earnings(3)
|____________________________________________________
Avg. hourly earnings, | | | | | |
total private..........| $16.03| $16.17| $16.19| p$16.29| p$16.32| p$0.03
Avg. weekly earnings, | | | | | |
total private..........| 540.86| 545.36| 547.22| p550.60| p549.98| p-.62
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|_______

1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.
2 Quarterly averages and the over-the-month change are calculated using
unrounded data.
3 Data relate to private production or nonsupervisory workers.
P = preliminary.

- 3 -

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

The number of persons marginally attached to the labor force was 1.4 million
in November, about the same as a year earlier. (Data are not seasonally adjusted.)
These individuals wanted and were available to work and had looked for a job sometime
in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed, however, because they
did not actively search for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. There were
404,000 discouraged workers in November, about the same as a year earlier. Dis-
couraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, were not currently looking
for work specifically because they believed no jobs were available for them. The
other 1.0 million marginally attached persons had not searched for work for reasons
such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-13.)

Employment Status of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees (Household Survey Data)

Beginning in October, questions were added to the household survey to identify
persons who evacuated from their homes, even temporarily, due to Hurricane Katrina.
Data collected through these questions do not represent all evacuees; persons living
outside of the scope of the survey--such as those living in hotels or shelters--are
not included. The questions were asked of persons in the household survey sample
throughout the country, since some evacuees relocated far from the storm-affected
areas. The questions also determined whether evacuees had returned to their homes
by the time of the survey. This additional information enabled analysis of the
employment status of this subgroup of evacuees. (The total number of evacuees
estimated from the household survey may change from month to month as people move
in and out of the scope of the survey.)

Information gathered in November showed that about 900,000 persons age 16 and
over had evacuated from where they were living in August due to Hurricane Katrina.
These evacuees either had returned to their homes or were living in other residential
units covered in the survey in November. Half of the evacuees had returned to their
August 2005 residences. Of all evacuees identified, 55.2 percent were in the labor
force in November. The employment-population ratio for these evacuees was 43.9 per-
cent. The unemployment rate for persons identified as evacuees was 20.5 percent; it
was much higher for those who had not returned home (27.8 percent) than for those who
had returned (12.5 percent). (See table B.)

Table B. Employment status in November 2005 of persons 16 years and
over who evacuated from their August residence, even temporarily, due
to Hurricane Katrina (1)

(Numbers in thousands, not seasonally adjusted)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| | Residence in November
| |-------------------------
Employment status in November 2005 | Total | Same as | Different than
| |in August| in August
-------------------------------------------------------|---------------
Civilian noninstitutional population.| 886 | 442 | 443
Civilian labor force...............| 489 | 233 | 256
Participation rate.......... | 55.2 | 52.7 | 57.7
Employed........................| 389 | 204 | 185
Employment-population ratio..| 43.9 | 46.1 | 41.6
Unemployed......................| 100 | 29 | 71
Unemployment rate............| 20.5 | 12.5 | 27.8
Not in labor force.................| 397 | 209 | 188
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1/ Represents persons in the civilian noninstitutional population
age 16 and over who resided in households that were eligible to be
selected for the Current Population Survey (CPS). These data are not
representative of the total evacuee population because they do not in-
clude children or people residing in shelters, hotels, places of worship,
or other units outside the scope of the CPS. The total number of evac-
uees estimated from the CPS may change from month to month as people
move in and out of the scope of the survey and because of sampling varia-
bility.
NOTE: These data use population controls that have been adjusted to
account for interstate moves by evacuees.

- 4 -

Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 215,000 to 134.3 million in
November. This followed 2 months of little growth in employment, due in
part to the direct and indirect effects of hurricanes that struck the Gulf
Coast. During the first 8 months of the year, payroll employment grew by
an average of 196,000 per month. In November, gains were widespread with
notable increases in construction, professional and technical services,
health care, and food services and drinking places. (See table B-1.)

In November, construction employment rose by 37,000, with a large increase
occurring in heavy and civil engineering construction (14,000). November job
gains in construction partly reflect rebuilding and clean-up efforts following
Hurricane Katrina. Employment in the industry has been on an upward trend for
more than 2-1/2 years.

Professional and technical services employment increased by 22,000 in
November. Within this sector, architectural and engineering services and
management and technical consulting services each added about 6,000 jobs.
Over the last 12 months, professional and technical services has added
210,000 jobs.

Health care employment continued to grow in November, increasing by 20,000.
Ambulatory health care services, which includes doctors' offices and outpatient
clinics, added 15,000 jobs. Health care has added 263,000 jobs since November
2004.

Within leisure and hospitality, food services--which includes restaurants
and drinking places--added 39,000 jobs in November. This followed declines in
the previous 2 months that totaled 69,000. For the 12 months ending in August,
the industry had gained 283,000 jobs.

Manufacturing employment edged up in November. Job gains occurred in wood
products and in computer and electronic products, while machinery manufacturing
employment decreased.

In November, employment in financial activities continued its upward trend,
as credit intermediation added 5,000 jobs. Wholesale trade employment also
continued to trend up, with most of the over-the-month gain occurring in the
industry's durable goods component. Retail trade employment was about un-
changed over the month. Within the industry, employment in automobile
dealerships declined for the second consecutive month, falling by 6,000 in
November. Building material and garden supply stores added 6,000 jobs over
the month.

Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)

The average workweek for production or nonsupervisory workers on private
nonfarm payrolls fell by 0.1 hour to 33.7 hours in November, seasonally
adjusted. The manufacturing workweek decreased by 0.2 hour to 40.8 hours,
following a 0.3-hour increase in October. Factory overtime was down by
0.1 hour in November to 4.5 hours. (See table B-2.)

The index of aggregate weekly hours of production or nonsupervisory workers
on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 0.1 percent in November to 103.2
(2002=100). The manufacturing index was down by 0.2 percent over the month
to 95.0. (See table B-5.)