On Friday October 6, 2000 the Employment Situation for September, 2000 was released. The statement showed many positive things for our economy and employment status. Total (nonfarm) employment rose by 252,000 in September. The return of striking communications workers to their jobs caused this figure to be high. Also affecting this figure was the loss of 27,000 temporary Census 2000 jobs. After the adjustment for these unusual circumstances, the increase in employment was brought to about 204,000. This increase wasn't as high as July's (employment increasing 241,000) but was significantly higher than last months, (august) which only rose by 160,000.
Job gains were seen in most industries. The service industry saw very strong gains, by nearly doubling its average growth for the previous 12 months. However, the widespread losses in manufacturing caused the overall employment situation to subside. .
Unemployment rates fell in almost every working category. The most dramatic decreases were 1% in Black, and 1.6% in teenage unemployment rates. Teenage unemployment decrease in September was important, after seeing an increase in unemployment rates in August. The amount of unemployed Americans dropped from 5.5 million people and the unemployment rate also dropped from 4.1 % to 3.9% of the eligible working population. This shows our economy is strong, because the unemployment rates is at the lowest it has been in the last 3 months. .
Average hourly wages have been on a steady increase since July. In September, average hourly wages were $13.83. This is an increase of three cents since August and eight cents since July. This is a good indication of a strong economy, because more people are employed and the average hourly wages are still increasing.
Unemployment of durable and nondurable goods manufacturing rose. Also suffering a rise in unemployment was the industry of manufacturing industrial machinery and equipment, which unemployed 9,000 workers in September along with apparel workers.