FOR DELIVERY: 9:30 A.M., E.D.T.
                            FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2001

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

                     Friday, May 4, 2001


     Good morning.  I appreciate this opportunity to comment
on the labor market data we released this morning.

     Labor market conditions weakened considerably in April.
Payroll employment fell by 223,000, following the loss of
53,000 jobs (as revised) in March, and the unemployment rate
rose to 4.5 percent.  April job losses again were
concentrated in manufacturing and help supply services, but
the declines were even larger than in recent months.
Moreover, in April there was very little job growth elsewhere
in the economy.

     Roughly half of the net employment decline in April
occurred in manufacturing, as the nation’s factories shed
104,000 jobs.  The bulk of the losses occurred in durable
goods manufacturing, where there were declines in nearly all
of the component industries.  The steepest employment
reductions took place in electrical equipment (-31,000),
industrial machinery (-16,000), and fabricated metals

(-13,000).  Employment also fell in nondurable goods
manufacturing industries, notably textiles, apparel, printing
and publishing, and rubber products.

     Manufacturing employment overall has been trending
downward since April 1998, but factory job losses have
accelerated dramatically this year.  In the past 4 months,
manufacturing has lost an average of 93,000 jobs per month.
The average monthly loss for all of 2000 was just 14,000.  In
April, the factory workweek and factory overtime held steady
at 40.7 and 3.8 hours, respectively, but both measures are
down substantially over the past year.

     Employment in help supply services fell markedly for the
second month in a row, with a decline of 108,000 in April.
This industry supplies temporary or continuing help on a
contract basis, in part to help other businesses fine-tune
their ability to meet demand fluctuations.  Employment in
help supply had trended upward for most of the 1990s, but
since September 2000 the job total in the industry has fallen
by 370,000, a drop of 11 percent.  Some of the recent
declines undoubtedly are related to the ongoing retrenchment
in manufacturing employment, but it seems likely that other
industries also are experiencing a reduced need for temporary
workers.

     Elsewhere in services, job growth was for the most part
sluggish in April.  Hiring in hotels and in amusement and
recreation services fell short of seasonal expectations for
the month, resulting in employment declines after seasonal
adjustment.  Employment in engineering and management
services continued to edge up, but the pace of job growth
this year has slowed sharply compared with last year.  Health
services added 14,000 jobs in April, half the monthly average
for the first quarter of this year.  One exception to the
general pattern of weakness in services was social services,
where a job gain of 14,000 was in line with its recent trend
growth.

     In April, hiring in construction fell short of seasonal
expectations.  As a result, employment declined by 64,000 on
a seasonally adjusted basis.  This decline follows very
strong growth in the first quarter of the year.  Thus, some
of the hiring that typically occurs in April may already have
taken place.  Moreover, heavy rains in the Midwest may have
adversely affected April's employment level.  We will need to
see additional months' data to determine whether and to what
extent the underlying trend in construction employment truly
has slowed.

     In contrast, the employment trend in mining has been
quite easy to discern in recent months.  Employment rose by
4,000 in April and has grown by 17,000 thus far in 2001.  All
of the net growth has been in oil and gas extraction.

     Quickly looking at April employment developments
elsewhere in the economy, wholesale trade employment slipped
for the fifth month in a row, likely reflecting the weakness
in manufacturing.  Employment in transportation also declined
a bit.  Retail employment was up 22,000 over the month, but
would have declined without the large rebound of 41,000 jobs
in eating and drinking places.

     Within finance, the number of jobs in mortgage banks was
little changed, and employment in security brokerages
declined.  The insurance industry gained 8,000 jobs in April,
and has added 33,000 jobs since September.  Government
employment rose by 38,000 in April, mostly in local
government.

     Finally from the payroll data, I should note that
average hourly earnings were up 5 cents over the month and
4.3 percent over the year.

     As I mentioned at the outset, the jobless rate was 4.5
percent in April, up two-tenths of a percentage point over
the month.  The unemployment rate is now six-tenths of a
percentage point above its recent low in October of last
year.  All of the major worker groups--adult men, adult
women, teenagers, whites, blacks, and Hispanics--have
experienced an increase in joblessness since October.

     Other cyclical indicators from our survey of households
also point to a softening job market.  The increase in the
number of unemployed persons since October (about 870,000)
has been concentrated among persons who have lost their jobs
and do not expect to be recalled, although there has been an
increase among those on temporary layoff as well.  We also
have observed in recent months an increase in the number of
newly unemployed persons, our best measure of the flow of
workers into unemployment.  Finally, I would note that
civilian employment fell by 426,000 in April, and the
employment-population ratio fell to 64.0 percent, down eight-
tenths of a percentage point from its all-time record high
set in April of last year.

     In summary, payroll employment fell by 223,000 in April
and the unemployment rate rose to 4.5 percent.  Employment
losses were concentrated in manufacturing and help supply
services, but the employment situation for most major
industries appears to have weakened in April.



     My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your
questions.

CPS Publications - Historical Monthly Employment Reports: 2001 Page

CPS Main Page