September 5, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Private-sector payroll employment edges up in August

In the private sector, employment edged up by 17,000 in August, seasonally adjusted, as a strike in the communications industry kept 87,000 workers off payrolls.

Over-the-month change in payroll employment, total, total private, and government, June-August 2000 (seasonally adjusted)
[Chart data—TXT]

Adjusted for the net strike impact over the month, private-sector employment was up by 102,000 in August. The net strike impact was 85,000, which reflects the return of a small number of strikers in hospitals as well as the communications industry strike.

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 105,000 to 131.5 million in August. In the public sector, 158,000 temporary workers completed their work on Census 2000 and left federal payrolls.

These data are a product of the BLS Current Employment Statistics Program. Find out more in "The Employment Situation: August 2000," news release USDL 00-252.

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