Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed (+56,000) in October,

[papau]

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
Friday, November 4, 2005. THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: OCTOBER 2005

Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed (+56,000) in October, and
the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.0 percent, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Average
hourly earnings of production or nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm
payrolls rose by 8 cents over the month.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma

In October, interviewing for the household survey resumed in
Orleans and Jefferson parishes in Louisiana. Interviews were not
conducted in those areas in September because they were under
mandatory evacuation orders. Otherwise, normal data collection
and estimation procedures were used in the household survey for both
months.

For the October establishment survey estimates, several modi-
fications to the usual estimation procedures were again used to
better reflect employment in Katrina-affected areas. The changes
included: (1) modification of procedures to impute employment
counts for survey nonrespondents in the most heavily impacted areas,
(2) adjustments to sample weights for sample units in the more broadly
defined disaster area to compensate for lower-than-average survey re-
sponse rates, and (3) modification of the adjustment procedure for
the business net birth/death estimator to reflect likely changes in
business birth/death patterns in the disaster areas.

Hurricane Rita made landfall on the Gulf Coast near the Louisiana
and Texas border in late September. For October, the number of re-
sponses to the establishment survey was only slightly below normal
in the areas affected by Rita. Therefore, no special estimation
procedures were used for those areas.

Hurricane Wilma struck Florida after the October survey reference
periods, but during the survey collection periods. As with Hurricane
Rita, the impact on data collection for the establishment survey was
minimal, and no special estimation procedures were used for the af-
fected areas. Because the reference periods for both surveys occurred
before Hurricane Wilma struck, any impact of this storm would not be
reflected in October's employment and unemployment estimates.

For more information on household and establishment survey pro-
cedures and estimates for October 2005, see http://www.bls.gov/
katrina/cpscesquestions.htm on the BLS Web site or call [phone]
for information about the household survey, and [phone] for in-
formation about the establishment survey.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

- 2 -


Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

Both the number of unemployed persons, 7.4 million, and the unemployment
rate, 5.0 percent, were little changed in October. The unemployment rate has
ranged from 4.9 to 5.1 percent since May. The unemployment rates for adult
women (4.6 percent), teenagers (15.9 percent), whites (4.4 percent), and blacks
(9.1 percent) showed little or no change over the month. The jobless rates
for adult men (4.3 percent) and Hispanics or Latinos (5.8 percent) both de-
clined from September. In October, the unemployment rate for Asians was 3.1
percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

After increasing by a similar magnitude in September, the number of persons
unemployed due to job loss fell by 201,000 in October to 3.5 million. Since
December, the number of unemployed job losers has decreased by 585,000. (See
table A-8.)

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

Total employment, 142.6 million, and the civilian labor force, 150.1 mil-
lion, were little changed in October. The employment-population ratio (62.9
percent) and the labor force participation rate (66.1 percent) also were lit-
tle changed. (See table A-1.)

In October, persons employed part time for economic reasons--those who are
available for and would prefer full-time work--decreased by 330,000 to 4.3
million. This number had been trending up in recent months. (See table A-5.)

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

The number of persons marginally attached to the labor force was 1.4 mil-
lion in October, down from 1.6 million a year earlier. (Data are not sea-
sonally 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 392,000 discouraged workers in
October, little changed from a year earlier. Discouraged 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.)

Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)

Total nonfarm payroll employment was little changed (+56,000) in October at
134.1 million. Employment growth was flat in September (-8,000, as revised),
due in part to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. In the first 8 months of the
year, payroll employment had increased by an average of 196,000 per month. In
October, construction, financial activities, and health care added jobs, while
employment in most other major industries showed little movement. (See
table B-1.)

Over the month, construction employment increased by 33,000, with much of
the gain (20,000) occurring in residential specialty trade contracting. Prior
to October, construction employment had been expanding by an average of 21,000
per month in 2005. October's gain may partly reflect rebuilding and clean-up
efforts following Hurricane Katrina. Mining continued to trend upward, adding
5,000 jobs over the month.

Manufacturing added 12,000 jobs in October. Employment in transportation
equipment increased by 22,000, largely due to the return of 18,000 striking
workers in the aerospace industry. This gain in transportation equipment
employment was partly offset by job losses in computer and peripheral equip-
ment (-2,000), electrical equipment and appliances (-3,000), and miscellan-
eous manufacturing (-4,000) in October.

- 4 -

Employment in financial activities continued to grow in October, rising by
22,000. Employment gains in credit intermediation accounted for about half
of the over-the-month increase. Over the year, credit intermediation has
added 107,000 jobs. Employment in insurance edged up in October.

Health care employment also continued to grow in October, increasing by
17,000. Ambulatory health care services, which includes doctors' offices and
outpatient clinics, added 11,000 jobs. Hospitals also contributed to the
employment gain with an increase of 6,000 jobs.

Employment in the leisure and hospitality industry edged down in October,
after declining by 63,000 in September. Within the industry, food services--
which includes restaurants and drinking places--accounted for the weakness
over the month. Prior to September, food services had been adding about
26,000 jobs per month in 2005.

Retail trade employment was essentially unchanged in October following a
large decline in September. In October, there were job losses in department
stores (-18,000) and automobile dealers (-9,000). Following large declines
in August and September, employment in food stores edged up by 9,000 in
October. Sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores also added 9,000
jobs over the month, largely offsetting a decline in September.

Professional and business services employment was little changed in
October. Over the last 12 months, however, the industry has added 442,000
jobs. Over the month, employment in computer systems design and related ser-
vices increased by 8,000.

In October, employment in information decreased by 15,000. Much of this
decline was due to a job loss of 11,000 in the motion picture and sound
recording industry. Despite the October decline, employment in the infor-
mation industry was about unchanged over the year.

Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)

The average workweek for production or nonsupervisory workers on private
nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 33.8 hours in October, seasonally adjusted.
The manufacturing workweek increased by 0.4 hour to 41.0 hours, and factory
overtime was unchanged at 4.5 hours. (See table B-2.)

The index of aggregate weekly hours of production or nonsupervisory work-
ers on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged in October at 103.2 (2002=100).
The manufacturing index was up by 1.3 percent over the month to 95.1. (See
table B-5.)

[papau]

1. Job gain weaker than forecast

http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/04/news/economy/jobs_october/index.htm
Job gain weaker than forecast
Employers add job in October after narrow lost after Hurricane Katrina but gain less than expected.
November 4, 2005: 8:36 AM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Employers added jobs again in October, but a closely watched government report Friday that came in weaker than Wall Street expectations.

The Labor Department reported that there was a net gain of 56,000 jobs on U.S. payrolls in October, compared with a net loss of 8,000 jobs in the revised September reading. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had looked for a 100,000 net gain in jobs in the most recent period. <snip>

[The White Tree]

2. Jobs for August were revised down as well.

Payrolls Expand in Oct.; Jobless Rate Dips
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051104/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy>

Another disappointment: job gains in August turned out to be 148,000, according to revised figures. That was down from the more robust increase of 211,000 previously reported.

I'd be curious to see how often the administration reports a number and then revises it downward later. It seems to happen an awful lot. I wonder if that is a trend native to the current Administration or to Administrations in general.