Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend up in October (+80,000),and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.0 percent, the U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment in the privatesector rose, with modest job growth continuing in professional andbusinesses services, leisure and hospitality, health care, and mining.Government employment continued to trend down.

Both the number of unemployed persons (13.9 million) and theunemployment rate (9.0 percent) changed little over the month. Theunemployment rate has remained in a narrow range from 9.0 to 9.2percent since April.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate declined forblacks (15.1 percent) in October, while the rates for adult men (8.8percent), adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (24.1 percent), whites(8.0 percent), and Hispanics (11.4 percent) showed little or nochange. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.3 percent, not seasonallyadjusted.

In October, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27weeks and over) declined by 366,000 to 5.9 million, or 42.4 percent oftotal unemployment.

The civilian labor force participation rate remained at 64.2 percentin October, and the employment-population ratio was little changed at58.4 percent.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons(sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) decreased by374,000 to 8.9 million in October. These individuals were working parttime because their hours had been cut back or because they were unableto find a full-time job.

In October, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the laborforce, about the same as a year earlier. (The data are not seasonallyadjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted andwere available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in theprior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they hadnot searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Among the marginally attached, there were 967,000 discouraged workersin October, a decrease of 252,000 from a year earlier. (The data arenot seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons notcurrently looking for work because they believe no jobs are availablefor them. The remaining 1.6 million persons marginally attached to thelabor force in October had not searched for work in the 4 weekspreceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or familyresponsibilities.