December 12, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payroll employment in November

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 132,000 in November 2006 to 136.0 million. This followed increases of 203,000 in September and 79,000 in October (as revised).

Over-the-month change in payroll employment, January 2006-November 2006
[Chart data—TXT]

Thus far this year, payroll employment has grown by an average of 149,000 per month.

In November, employment rose in several service-providing industries and in mining. Employment declined in construction and continued to trend downward in manufacturing.

These data are from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program, and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. More information can be found in "The Employment Situation: November 2006" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-2041.