Washington [US], September 6 : Total nonfarm payroll employment in the US increased by 142,000 in August, and the unemployment rate changed a little to 4.2 per cent, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. In July, the unemployment rate was 4.3 per cent.
Job gains during August have occurred in construction and health care, data showed.
Employment growth in August was in line with average job growth in recent months but was below the average monthly gain of 202,000 over the prior 12 months, the labour bureau said in a statement.
Both the unemployment rate, at 4.2 per cent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, changed little in August.
These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.8 per cent, and the number of unemployed people was 6.3 million, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.0 percent), adult women (3.7 per cent), teenagers (14.1 per cent), Whites (3.8 per cent), Blacks (6.1 per cent), Asians (4.1 per cent), and Hispanics (5.5 per cent) showed little or no change in August.
Among the unemployed, the number of people on temporary layoff declined by 190,000 to 872,000 in August, mostly offsetting an increase in the prior month. The number of permanent job losers was essentially unchanged at 1.7 million in August.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was virtually unchanged at 1.5 million in August. The long-term unemployed accounted for 21.3 per cent of all unemployed people.
The labour force participation rate remained at 62.7 per cent in August and has little changed over the year.
The number of people not in the labour force who currently want a job, at 5.6 million, changed little in August.
"These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job," the labour bureau said.
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