Employment Situation Summary
Technical information:
Household data: (202) 691-6378 USDL 04-07
http://www.bls.gov/cps/ Establishment data: 691-6555 Transmission of material in this release is
http://www.bls.gov/ces/ embargoed until 8:30 A.M. (EST),
Media contact: 691-5902 Friday, January 9, 2004.
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: DECEMBER 2003
Table A. Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
HOUSEHOLD DATA | Labor force status
|____________________________________________________
Civilian labor force.....| 146,628| 146,986| 146,892| 147,187| 146,878| -309
Employment.............| 137,647| 138,369| 138,095| 138,533| 138,479| -54
Unemployment...........| 8,981| 8,616| 8,797| 8,653| 8,398| -255
Not in labor force.......| 74,885| 75,290| 75,147| 75,093| 75,631| 538
Internet address:
http://stats.bls.gov/newsrels.htm Technical information: USDL 01-35
Household data: (202) 691-6378
Transmission of material in this release is
Establishment data: 691-6555 embargoed until 8:30 A.M. (EST),
Media contact: 691-5902 Friday, February 2, 2001.
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: JANUARY 2001
Table A. Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
___________________________________________________________________________
| Quarterly | Monthly data |
| averages | |
|_________________|__________________________| Dec.-
Category | 2000 | 2000 | 2001 | Jan.
|_________________|_________________|________|change
| III | IV | Nov. | Dec. | Jan. |
______________________|________|________|________|________|________|_______
HOUSEHOLD DATA | Labor force status
|____________________________________________________
Civilian labor force..| 140,706| 141,208| 141,136| 141,489| 141,955| 466
Employment..........| 135,049| 135,593| 135,478| 135,836| 135,999| 163
Unemployment........| 5,657| 5,616| 5,658| 5,653| 5,956| 303
Not in labor force....| 69,235| 69,358| 69,441| 69,254| 68,934| -320
I am not sure what you are looking at but my numbers above are directly from BLS and support my prious email.
Without guessing at your math, it seems you're citing the household survey data, which uses a different definition of 'job'.
When the household survey is made, they are attempting to distinguish between people with any work at all (partime and even unbillable time self-employed) versus people with no work of any kind. The purpose of the household survey is actually to measure unemployment.
The purpose of the establishment survey is to measure jobs and treats a job as generally full-time paid, though I believe, OTOH, commissioned sales positions get included.
The difference between the two surveys has been discussed for years, and the BLS is trying to reconcile them with yet a 3rd report called the "Quarterly Data on Business Employment Dynamics".
But generally, the establishmnet data is used to measure employment, the household survey is used to measure the total labor force and unemployment.