FOR DELIVERY: 9:30 A.M., E.D.T.
                            FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1998


Advance copies of this statement are made available to the
press under lock-up conditions with the explicit
understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m.
Eastern Daylight Time.

Statement of

Katharine G. Abraham
Commissioner
Bureau of Labor Statistics

before the

Joint Economic Committee

UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Friday, May 8, 1998




Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
I would like to thank you for this opportunity to
comment on the labor market data released this morning.
Employment rose and unemployment fell sharply in April.
Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 262,000, following
essentially no change in March.  The April increase is in
line with the average monthly gain for the prior 12 months.
The jobless rate dropped four-tenths of a percentage point
to 4.3 percent.  The unemployment rate had held fairly
steady from November of last year through March.
Nearly all of the net employment growth in April
occurred in the service-producing sector of the economy,
with the services industry alone adding 139,000 jobs.
Business services payrolls grew by 60,000, mostly in help
supply services and in computer and data processing.  Over
the past year, business services has added nearly half a
million jobs.  Engineering and management services added
19,000 jobs in April, sustaining the faster pace of job
growth that started last spring.  Employment in health
services rose by 14,000; growth thus far in 1998 has been
slightly below the trend exhibited in 1997.
Elsewhere in the service-producing sector, retail trade
employment rose by 44,000, more than making up for a modest
decline in March.  Even with the April increase, however,
retail employment growth has been slow so far this year.
The April increase was confined largely to eating and
drinking places and department stores.  The finance and real
estate industries each added 12,000 jobs over the month,
continuing a pattern of solid job expansion that is related
to a buoyant stock market, low interest rates, and a strong
housing market.  Job growth continued, in particular, among
security brokerages, mortgage banks and brokerages, and real
estate firms.
Employment in wholesale trade rose by 11,000 over the
month, below the average monthly gain during the past year.
The number of jobs in transportation and public utilities
showed little change in April.
In the goods-producing sector of the economy,
construction employment rose by 35,000 in April after
showing weather-related weakness in March.  Since October of
last year, the industry has added an average of about 30,000
jobs per month, twice the rate of job growth as in the 12
months prior to October.  It is difficult, however, to
separate the influence of strong housing demand from the
effects of this year’s unusual winter weather patterns on
the recent movements in construction employment.  April job
gains in the industry were concentrated in heavy
construction and among special trade contractors.
Manufacturing employment declined by 10,000 in April,
its third month of weakness following a gain of 169,000
between September and January.  April job losses were
generally small, but widespread.  Most of the weakness was
in nondurable goods, with a notable job decline of 6,000 in
apparel.  In durable goods, small job losses occurred in
electronic components and in industrial machinery,
industries that had been adding workers at a fairly steady
clip during 1997.
Average weekly hours in manufacturing fell by 1.1 hours
in April.  Although much of this decline reflects the fact
that the Easter weekend fell during the survey reference
period, I would note that manufacturing hours have been
drifting down since the beginning of this year, another
indication of weakness in the industry.  Average hourly
earnings for all private production workers increased by 4
cents in April, and are up 4.4 percent over the year.
Turning to data from our survey of households, the
number of unemployed persons declined by 670,000 in April to
5.9 million and the unemployment rate fell by four-tenths of
a percentage point to 4.3 percent.  The major demographic
groups generally shared in the improvement.  Notably, the
jobless rate for adult men dropped by half a percentage
point to 3.4 percent, and the rate for teenagers fell nearly
2 percentage points, to 13.1 percent.
Declines occurred over the month in the number of
persons who were unemployed because they were on temporary
layoff and among those who had left their jobs voluntarily
to look for new ones.  There also was a substantial drop in
the number of persons who had been without work for 15 weeks
or more.
The number of persons employed part time even though
they would have preferred full-time work also declined in
April, to 3.7 million.  Among those not in the labor force,
the number of persons referred to as "marginally attached"
to the labor market was 1.3 million (not seasonally
adjusted) in April, down slightly from a year earlier.
These are persons who indicate that they want a job and are
available to take one, and have tested the job market in the
past year.  They are, however, not currently working or
looking for work.  The number of discouraged workers, a
subset of this group who indicate that they have given up
their search for work because they feel that there are no
jobs available for them or none for which they would
qualify, was 344,000 in April, about the same as a year
earlier.
Civilian employment rose by 389,000 in April.  The
proportion of the population age 16 years and older that is
employed, at 64.2 percent in April, tied the record-high
level first reached this past January.
In summary, employment rose in April, although there
was some weakness in manufacturing.  Unemployment fell
sharply after holding fairly steady for several months, but,
as always, we should be cautious about putting too much
weight on any one month's data.
My colleagues and I would be glad to answer your
questions.

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