The continued pickup in manufacturing and the return of school employees kept total nonagricultural employment (census figures) close to its August peak, despite the withdrawal of more than a million students from summer jobs. At the same time, the number of employees on nonfarm payrolls (BLS figures) —excluding the self-employed, unpaid family workers, and domestics— rose by 550,000 to 51.1 million. These divergent movements always occur between August and September and result mainly from different methods of counting persons on vacation. The BLS series-which does not count workers on unpaid vacations as employed-rises with their return to work. The census series counts vacationing workers as employed whether or not they are paid and is not affected by the late summer returns to work.

Factory employment increased by 240,000 over the month to 15.7 million. As in recent months, the employment pickup in September was concentrated in the hard-hit durable goods industries, and was the largest gain recorded for any month since the low point in May. The rise in auto industry employment resulted from an early start on production of new models. Significant increases were also reported by producers of radios, TV sets and electronic equipment. Job changes in the nondurable goods sector and in industries other than manufacturing were mainly seasonal. State and local governments registered sizable job increases with the start of the new school term. Employment also rose in retail trade with the usual autumn expansion in sales. Employment remaind at low levels in the mining and transportation industries.

Weekly hours of work in manufacturing rose seasonally by 0.2 hours over the month to 39.8 hours as overtime work increased. The September workweek was almost back to the level of a year ago, but was about 1 hour below the September levels of 1955 and 1956.

As a result of an increase in hourly earnings and a longer workweek, average weekly earnings of factory production workers rose by 82 cents to $85.17 for a new record.

The seasonally adjusted rate of unemployment fell to 7.2 percent in September from 7.6 percent a month earlier. In September a year ago, when unemployment was about 1.6 million lower than at the present time, the rate was 4.5 percent.

A major part of the 600,000 drop in unemployment between August and September resulted from the hiring of adult workers. This was in contrast to the drop in August, which occurred entirely among students and recent graduates. The number of adult men (25 years and over) out of work fell by 300,000 to 1.8 million in September, moving under the 2-million mark for the first time this year. On a seasonally adjusted basis, this was the first significant drop in unemployment among adult men since the recession began last year.

At the same time, insured unemployment under the regular State programs— which includes few if any student jobseekers-dropped about 275,000 over the month to 1,950,000 in mid-September. All but four States showed a decline. The largest reduction (50,000) occurred in Michigan, followed by declines of 25,000 to 30,000 each in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Preliminary estimates indicate that approximately 235,000 claimants exhausted their regular benefits in September, compared with 255,000 in August and 82,900 in September 1957.

Insured joblessness under the temporary unemployment compensation programs showed little change over the month, edging up by less than 5,000 to 654,000. These are unemployed workers who have exhausted their benefit rights under the regular programs. By the end of August, over 50,000 claimants had received their final payments under the temporary benefit programs.

Among all unemployed workers, the number out of work 15 weeks or longer fell by 200,000 over the month to 1.5 million, whereas this total is usually fairly stable at this time of year. This was the first seasonally adjusted drop in longterm unemployment since the number began rising late in 1957. Most of the decrease occurred among "hard goods" factory workers.

Average weekly hours of production workers in manufacturing industries.

2,928,000

3,897,000

11, 124, 000

2,384,000

6,447,000

7,929,000

39.8

40. 1
39.5

51,110,000

15,692,000

15, 453, 000

8,758,000

6,934,000

709,000

8,566,000 6,887,000

712,000 2,960,000 3,899,000 11,005, 000 2. 411,000 6,450,000 7,665,000

39.6

39.8

39.3

Payroll period ending nearest 15th of month. August figures revised, September data preliminary. Excludes claims filed under the temporary unemployment compensation programs. (See text).

!

[U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports-Labor Force, February 1959, Washington, D.C., Series P-57, No. 199]

This report supplements the "Combined Employment and Unemployment" release issued jointly today by the Departments of Commerce and Labor. The joint release, issued as a press statement, summarizes the material presented in full detail in this report, along with related data from the Department of Labor

THE MONTHLY REPORT ON THE LABOR FORCE: JANUARY 1959

(Seasonal adjustment: Seasonal adjustment factors are recomputed at the conclusion of each year and revised ones issued for current use, if the pattern has changed significantly. Because the seasonal adjustment of unemployment for the summer months of 1958 presented special problems, a study is being made of several alternative methods. In the meantime, it has been decided to continue using the method and specific factors issued last year, as described on p. 6)

Job changes between December and January were just about normal for this time of year, with the customary post-Christmas lull in retail trade and further cutbacks in outdoor work. Total civilian employment fell by 1.3 million over the month to 62.7 million in the week ending January 17, while unemployment rose by 600,000 to 4.7 million. The drop in employment was larger than the rise in unemployment because most of those leaving holiday-season jobs (mainly women) withdrew from the labor force without seeking other work.

The largely seasonal developments during the last 2 or 3 months are in marked contrast to the sharp downtrend over this same period a year ago. At that time employment was moving downward not only in seasonal lines but also in "hard goods” manufacturing and other basic industries. The recent stability except for seasonal changes represents some slowdown, however, in the rate of recovery from the recession low point in employment.

Agricultural employment dipped over the month to 4.7 million, one of the lowest levels on record in this long-time declining sector. Nonagricultural employment accounted for the largest part of the seasonal job loss in January, falling by 1.1 million to 58 million. On a seasonally adjusted basis, there has been a substantial pickup in nonfarm jobs since the low point in economic activity last spring. The January level, however, was no higher than in the first quarter of 1957, despite continued growth in the population of working age since that time. TABLE A.-Summary of estimates: January 1959 and January and December 1958 [Thousands of persons 14 years of age and over]

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged at 6 percent, that is, the jobless increase was about average for January. This marked the second consecutive month in which this rate did not register a significant decline. From April through November of 1958, the rate dropped from 72 percent to 6 percent, as the total unemployed fell by about 1 million from peak recession levels after allowance for seasonal variations.

The seasonal rise in unemployment this January was only half as large as a year earlier, when the jobless total moved up by 1.1 million for the biggest increase in any single month during the recession. Moreover, in further contrast to the situation in early 1958, about one-fifith of the net additions to the unemployed this year came from manufacturing industries as compared with twofifths in January 1958.

The number of usual full-time workers on part time because of slack work or other economic reasons rose by 175,000 to 1,250,000, about the same increase as in the beginning of 1956 and 1957. In January 1958, however, this "economic part-time" group climbed by some 650,000 to 1,950,000, or close to its recession and postwar peak.

This report, released today by Robert W. Burgess, Director, Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce, is based on the Bureau's Current Population Survey. The estimates are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability; see explanation beginning on page 8.

LABOR FORCE

The total labor force-including the civilian employed, the unemployed, and the Armed Forces-was estimated at 70 million for the week ending January 17, down by 700,000 from December. This reduction resulted from the withdrawals of housewives and other temporary workers from holiday season jobs. The December-January drop in the labor force was less than that recorded in the two previous years, but fairly close to the average decline at this time of year during the postwar decade as a whole.

The total labor force was about 600,000 larger than at the start of 1958. Although this overall growth was not especially large in relation to the long-range trend, changes among the various age-sex groups in the population indicated a continuation of the more persistent postwar developments in 1959. For example, middle-aged women (45 to 64 years) continued to account for a disproportionate part of labor force growth. They represented only 10 percent of the labor force but two-thirds of the increase from January 1958 to January 1959. The rate of participation for these women (proportion of their population in the labor force) stood at 43 percent in January 1959 as compared with 41 percent a year earlier. At the same time, both the number and the proportion of men past 65 who were employed or seeking work continued to decline.