September 10, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payroll employment in August 2007

In August, total payroll employment was essentially unchanged (-4,000) at 138.0 million, seasonally adjusted.

Over-the-month change in payroll employment, January 2006-August 2007
[Chart data—TXT]

This followed little job growth in June (+69,000) and July (+68,000), as revised.

In August, employment continued to fall in manufacturing and construction; local government education also lost jobs. Job gains continued in health care and in food services and drinking places.

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: August 2007" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-1363.

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The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

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