Washington, DC…The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 9.4 percent in
December, and nonfarm payroll employment increased by 103,000, the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in
leisure and hospitality and in health care but was little changed in
other major industries.

______________________________________________________________________
| |
| Revision of Seasonally Adjusted Household Survey Data |
| |
|Seasonally adjusted household survey data have been revised using up- |
|dated seasonal adjustment factors, a procedure done at the end of each|
|calendar year. Seasonally adjusted estimates back to January 2006 were|
|subject to revision. The unemployment rates for January 2010 through |
|November 2010 (as originally published and as revised) appear in |
|table A, along with additional information about the revisions. |
|______________________________________________________________________|

Household Survey Data

The number of unemployed persons decreased by 556,000 to 14.5 million
in December, and the unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent. Over
the year, these measures were down from 15.2 million and 9.9 percent,
respectively. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men
(9.4 percent) and whites (8.5 percent) declined in December. The un-
employment rates for adult women (8.1 percent), teenagers (25.4 per-
cent), blacks (15.8 percent), and Hispanics (13.0 percent) showed
little change. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.2 percent, not
seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

In December, the number of job losers and persons who completed tem-
porary jobs dropped by 548,000 to 8.9 million. The number of long-
term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little
changed at 6.4 million and accounted for 44.3 percent of the unem-
ployed. (See tables A-11 and A-12.)

The civilian labor force participation rate edged down in December to
64.3 percent, and the employment-population ratio was essentially un-
changed at 58.3 percent. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (some-
times referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially
unchanged in December at 8.9 million. These individuals were working
part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were
unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)

About 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force
in December, little different than a year earlier. (The data are not
seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force,
wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime
in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because
they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
(See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.3 million discouraged
workers in December, an increase of 389,000 from December 2009. (The
data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons
not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are
available for them. The remaining 1.3 million persons marginally
attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks
preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family
responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 103,000 in December.
Employment rose in leisure and hospitality and in health care but
changed little in other major industries. Since December 2009, total
payroll employment has increased by 1.1 million, or an average of
94,000 per month. (See table B-1.)

Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 47,000 in December.
Within the industry, job gains continued in food services and drinking
places (+25,000). Since a recent low in December 2009, the food services
industry has added 188,000 jobs.

In December, health care employment continued to expand, with a gain
of 36,000. Over the month, job gains continued in ambulatory services
(+21,000), hospitals (+8,000), and nursing and residential care facili-
ties (+7,000).

Within professional and business services, employment in temporary help
services continued to trend up in December (+16,000) and has risen by
495,000 since a recent low in September 2009.

Employment in retail trade changed little in December (+12,000). A
job gain in motor vehicle and parts dealers (+8,000) offset a loss
in health and personal care stores (-8,000). Employment in most other
service-providing industries changed little over the month.

In the goods-producing sector, mining employment continued to trend
up in December, reflecting a job gain in support activities for mining
(+5,000).

Manufacturing employment changed little over the month (+10,000). Fol-
lowing job growth earlier in 2010, employment has been relatively flat,
on net, since May. Construction employment also was little changed overall
in December (-16,000). Within construction, there were job losses in heavy
and civil engineering (-13,000) and in residential building (-6,000).

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls
held at 34.3 hours in December. The manufacturing workweek for all
employees declined by 0.1 hour to 40.2 hours, while factory overtime
remained at 3.1 hours. The average workweek for production and non-
supervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1
hour to 33.6 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)

In December, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm
payrolls increased by 3 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $22.78. Over the past 12
months, average hourly earnings have increased by 1.8 percent. In December,
average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory em-
ployees rose by 2 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $19.21. (See tables B-3 and B-8.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised
from +172,000 to +210,000, and the change for November was revised
from +39,000 to +71,000.

_________
The Employment Situation for January is scheduled to be released on
Friday, February 4, 2011, at 8:30 a.m. (EST).

__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Upcoming Changes to Establishment Survey Data |
| |
|Effective with the release of January 2011 data on February 4, 2011, the |
|establishment survey will begin estimating net business birth/death ad- |
|justment factors on a quarterly basis, replacing the current practice of |
|estimating the factors annually. This will allow the establishment sur- |
|vey to incorporate information from the Quarterly Census of Employment |
|and Wages into the birth/death adjustment factors as soon as it becomes |
|available and thereby improve the factors. Additional information on this |
|change is available at www.bls.gov/ces/ces_quarterly_birthdeath.pdf. |
| |
|__________________________________________________________________________|

__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Upcoming Changes to Household Survey Data |
| |
|Effective with the release of January 2011 data on February 4, 2011, two |
|additional data series–“Self-employed workers, unincorporated” and “Self-|
|employed workers, incorporated”–will be added to table A-9. As a result, |
|the format of table A-9 will change; sample versions in HTML and PDF for- |
|mats are available at www.bls.gov/cps/empsit_changes_table_a9_2011.htm. |
|Data on the incorporated self-employed have not previously been published |
|on a regular basis. |
| |
|Also, in table A-8, the data series currently labeled “Self-employed work-|
|ers” (one for Agriculture and related industries and one for Nonagricul- |
|tural industries) will be renamed “Self-employed workers, unincorporated.”|
|This is strictly a change in title and not in definition; the data shown |
|will not be affected. This change is being made to clarify that these data|
|only include persons operating unincorporated businesses. A similar title |
|change will be made to one data series in table A-14. |
| |
|In addition, a change affecting data collected on unemployment duration |
|will be introduced in the household survey in January 2011. Presently, |
|the Current Population Survey can record unemployment durations of up to |
|2 years. Starting with data collected for January 2011, respondents will |
|be able to report unemployment durations of up to 5 years. This change |
|will likely affect one data series in this news release: the average |
|(mean) duration of unemployment, which is found in table A-12. The change |
|does not affect the estimate of total unemployment or other data series on|
|duration of unemployment. Additional information is available at |
|www.bls.gov/cps/duration.htm. |
| |
|Beginning with data for January 2011, occupation estimates in table A-13 |
|will reflect the introduction of the 2010 Census occupation classification|
|system into the household survey. This occupation classification system is|
|derived from the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification system. Histor-|
|ical data will not be revised. |
| |
|__________________________________________________________________________|

__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Revisions in the Establishment Survey Data |
| |
|With the release of January 2011 data on February 4, 2011, the Current |
|Employment Statistics survey will introduce revisions to nonfarm payroll |
|employment, hours, and earnings data to reflect the annual benchmark ad- |
|justments for March 2010 and updated seasonal adjustment factors. Not sea-|
|sonally adjusted data beginning with April 2009 and seasonally adjusted |
|data beginning with January 2006 are subject to revision. |
| |
|__________________________________________________________________________|

__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Revisions in the Household Survey Data |
| |
|Effective with the release of data for January 2011 on February 4, 2011 |
|2011, revisions will be introduced into the population controls for the |
|household survey. These changes reflect the routine annual updating of |
|intercensal population estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. |
| |
|__________________________________________________________________________|

Revision of Seasonally Adjusted Household Survey Data

At the end of each calendar year, BLS routinely updates the seasonal adjustment
factors for the labor force series derived from the Current Population Survey
(CPS), or household survey. As a result of this process, seasonally adjusted
data for January 2006 through November 2010 were subject to revision.

Table A shows the unemployment rates for January 2010 through November 2010, as
first published and as revised. The rates were unchanged in 8 of the 11 months
and changed by one-tenth of a percentage point in the remaining 3 months. Re-
vised seasonally adjusted data for other major labor force series beginning
in December 2009 appear in table B.

An article describing the seasonal adjustment methodology for the household
survey data and revised data for January 2010 through November 2010 is available
at www.bls.gov/cps/cpsrs2011.pdf.

Historical data for the seasonally adjusted household series contained in the
A-tables of this release can be accessed at www.bls.gov/cps/cpsatabs.htm. Re-
vised historical seasonally adjusted monthly and quarterly data for additional
series are available on the Internet at ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/.

Table A. Seasonally adjusted unemployment rates and changes due to
revision, January – November 2010

Year and month As first As Change
published revised

2010

January …………… 9.7 9.7 0.0
February ………….. 9.7 9.7 .0
March …………….. 9.7 9.7 .0
April …………….. 9.9 9.8 -.1
May ………………. 9.7 9.6 -.1
June ……………… 9.5 9.5 .0
July ……………… 9.5 9.5 .0
August ……………. 9.6 9.6 .0
September …………. 9.6 9.6 .0
October …………… 9.6 9.7 .1
November ………….. 9.8 9.8 .0

Table B. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age, seasonally adjusted

(Numbers in thousands)

2009 2010
Employment status, sex, and age

Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.

TOTAL

Civilian noninstitutional population (1) 236924 236832 236998 237159 237329 237499 237690 237890 238099 238322 238530 238715 238889
Civilian labor force……………… 153172 153353 153558 153895 154520 154237 153684 153628 154117 154124 153960 153950 153690
Participation rate………….. 64.7 64.8 64.8 64.9 65.1 64.9 64.7 64.6 64.7 64.7 64.5 64.5 64.3
Employed………………………. 137960 138511 138698 138952 139382 139353 139092 138991 139267 139378 139084 138909 139206
Employment-population ratio….. 58.2 58.5 58.5 58.6 58.7 58.7 58.5 58.4 58.5 58.5 58.3 58.2 58.3
Unemployed…………………….. 15212 14842 14860 14943 15138 14884 14593 14637 14849 14746 14876 15041 14485
Unemployment rate…………… 9.9 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.8 9.6 9.5 9.5 9.6 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.4

Men, 20 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population (1) 106125 105998 106100 106198 106301 106407 106522 106641 106761 106887 107007 107114 107216
Civilian labor force……………… 78463 78386 78568 78841 79279 79178 79094 78993 79295 79289 79016 78980 78906
Participation rate………….. 73.9 74.0 74.1 74.2 74.6 74.4 74.3 74.1 74.3 74.2 73.8 73.7 73.6
Employed………………………. 70479 70525 70707 70977 71348 71451 71329 71340 71505 71559 71365 71130 71480
Employment-population ratio….. 66.4 66.5 66.6 66.8 67.1 67.1 67.0 66.9 67.0 66.9 66.7 66.4 66.7
Unemployed…………………….. 7983 7861 7861 7864 7931 7728 7765 7653 7789 7729 7651 7849 7426
Unemployment rate…………… 10.2 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 9.8 9.8 9.7 9.8 9.7 9.7 9.9 9.4

Women, 20 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population (1) 113832 113796 113886 113974 114066 114160 114264 114372 114481 114596 114704 114801 114894
Civilian labor force……………… 68635 68958 69026 68976 69167 69057 68826 68797 68883 69082 69018 69151 69027
Participation rate………….. 60.3 60.6 60.6 60.5 60.6 60.5 60.2 60.2 60.2 60.3 60.2 60.2 60.1
Employed………………………. 63037 63549 63516 63479 63501 63487 63483 63340 63379 63562 63400 63385 63428
Employment-population ratio….. 55.4 55.8 55.8 55.7 55.7 55.6 55.6 55.4 55.4 55.5 55.3 55.2 55.2
Unemployed…………………….. 5598 5409 5509 5497 5665 5570 5343 5458 5504 5520 5618 5766 5599
Unemployment rate…………… 8.2 7.8 8.0 8.0 8.2 8.1 7.8 7.9 8.0 8.0 8.1 8.3 8.1

Both sexes, 16 to 19 years

Civilian noninstitutional population (1) 16967 17038 17012 16987 16962 16932 16904 16877 16857 16839 16819 16800 16780
Civilian labor force……………… 6075 6009 5964 6078 6074 6002 5764 5838 5939 5754 5927 5820 5757
Participation rate………….. 35.8 35.3 35.1 35.8 35.8 35.4 34.1 34.6 35.2 34.2 35.2 34.6 34.3
Employed………………………. 4444 4438 4475 4497 4533 4416 4279 4312 4383 4256 4319 4393 4298
Employment-population ratio….. 26.2 26.0 26.3 26.5 26.7 26.1 25.3 25.5 26.0 25.3 25.7 26.2 25.6
Unemployed…………………….. 1631 1572 1490 1581 1542 1586 1485 1526 1556 1497 1607 1426 1460
Unemployment rate…………… 26.8 26.2 25.0 26.0 25.4 26.4 25.8 26.1 26.2 26.0 27.1 24.5 25.4

Footnotes:
1 The population figures are not adjusted for seasonal variation.
NOTE: Seasonally adjusted data have been revised to reflect updated seasonal adjustment factors.