August 05, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payroll employment in July 2008

Total nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down in July. Thus far in 2008, payroll employment has fallen by 463,000.

Over-the-month change in payroll employment, July 2007-July 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

Over the month, employment continued to decline in manufacturing, construction, employment services, wholesale trade, and the information industry. Health care and mining continued to add jobs over the month.

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: July 2008," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL 08-1049.