Payroll employment rises in July 2011

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 117,000 in July, following little growth over the prior 2 months. Job gains occurred in health care, retail trade, manufacturing, professional and technical services, and mining.

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Health care employment grew by 31,000 in July. Over the past 12 months, health care employment has grown by 299,000. Retail trade added 26,000 jobs in July. Employment in retail trade has increased by 228,000 since a recent low in December 2009.

Manufacturing employment increased in July (+24,000); nearly all of the increase was in durable goods manufacturing. Manufacturing has added 289,000 jobs since its most recent trough in December 2009, and durable goods manufacturing added 327,000 during this period.

Employment in professional and technical services continued to trend up in July (+18,000). This industry has added 246,000 jobs since a recent low in March 2010. In July, employment in mining rose by 9,000; virtually all of the gain (+8,000) occurred in support activities for mining. Employment in mining has increased by 140,000 since a recent low in October 2009.

Elsewhere in the private sector, employment in construction, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality changed little over the month.

Government employment continued to trend down over the month (-37,000). Of this number, employment in state government decreased by 23,000, almost entirely due to a partial shutdown of the Minnesota state government.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. The data are seasonally adjusted, and data for the most recent two months are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — July 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news releases number USDL-11-1151.