Employment situation holds steady

The headline unemployment rate of 4.4% didn’t change much in the August Employment Situation Summary. It was up slightly from 4.3% in July. But the details of the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a nice jump in construction employment, after five months of little or no change.

Construction employment rose by 28,000. The employment report also estimated that employment among residential specialty trade contractors edged up by 12,000 during the month of August.

The report was issued Sept. 1 and included a note on the impact of Hurricane Harvey, which had no discernable effect on the employment and unemployment data for August. That’s because the household survey data collection was completed before the storm, the note said.

Manufacturing employment rose by 36,000 in August. Employment in wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, and government, showed little change over the month.

Other stats from the report:

• Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 156,000 in August;

• The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 62.9%; and

• In August, 1.5 million people were marginally attached to the labor force, about the same as last year.

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