THE Employment/Unempoyment Situation (Bullet Point Version)

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in August (-216,000), and the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Although job losses continued in many of the major industry sectors in August, the declines have moderated in recent months.

The Situation

In August, the number of unemployed persons increased by 466,000 to 14.9 million,
The unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point to 9.7 percent,
Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 7.4 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 4.8 percentage points,
The civilian labor force participation rate remained at 65.5 percent in August The employment population ratio, at 59.2 percent, edged down over the month and has declined by 3.5 percentage points since the recession began in December 2007,
In August, the number of persons working part time for economic reasons was little changed at 9.1 million. These individuals indicated that they were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job,
Among the marginally attached, the number of discouraged workers in August (758,000) has nearly doubled over the past 12 months,
The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 33.1 hours