July 07, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payrolls in June 2008

Total nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down in June (-62,000). Since peaking in December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 438,000.

[Chart data—TXT]

Within professional and business services, employment services lost 59,000 jobs in June; about half of the decrease (-30,000) occurred in temporary help services. So far this year, monthly job losses in temporary help services have averaged 26,000 compared with average declines of 7,000 per month in 2007

Employment in construction fell by 43,000 in June, as job losses continued across the industry. Since its peak in September 2006, construction employment has fallen by 528,000.

Manufacturing employment fell by 33,000. Job losses were widespread throughout the industry, with notable declines in fabricated metal products (-9,000), printing and related support activities (-6,000), and wood products (-6,000). Over the past 12 months, manufacturing has lost 353,000 jobs.

Health care employment continued to grow in June (15,000), although the increase was half the size of the average monthly gain during the prior 12 months. Since June 2007, health care has added 348,000 jobs.

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: June 2008," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL 08-0928.