December 11, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payroll job total grew slowly in November

Payroll employment increased by 94,000 in November, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.0 percent.

Change in payroll employment by industry, November 2000 (seasonally adjusted)
[Chart data—TXT]

Employment rose by 148,000 in the private sector, with gains in the service-producing industries. Employment was little changed in the goods-producing industries and declined in government.

Employment growth was generally stronger in the first half of 2000 than in the last 5 months. The jobless rate has remained within the 3.9- to 4.1-percent range since October 1999.

The payroll employment data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and the unemployment rate from the Current Population Survey. All data in this article are seasonally adjusted. Read more in The Employment Situation: November 2000 (News release USDL 00-355).

 

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

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.

Find out more about the story of TED