Chart: Payroll employment by month since July 2008

In July, total non-farm payroll employment decreased by 131,000, reflecting the departure of 143,000 temporary Census 2010 workers from Federal Government payrolls.

[Chart data]

Total private employment edged up (+71,000) from June to July. Thus far this year, private sector employment has increased by 630,000, with about two-thirds of the gain occurring in March and April.

In July, manufacturing employment increased by 36,000 over the month. Motor vehicles and parts had fewer seasonal layoffs than normal, contributing to a seasonally adjusted employment increase of 21,000.

Health care added 27,000 jobs in July. Over the past 12 months, health care employment has risen by 231,000.

Employment in financial activities continued to trend down in July, with a decline of 17,000. So far this year, monthly job losses in the industry have averaged 12,000, compared with an average monthly job loss of 29,000 for all of 2009.

Government employment fell by 202,000 in July, largely reflecting the loss of 143,000 temporary workers hired for Census 2010. Employment in both state and local governments edged down over the month.

This data is from the Current Employment Statistics program. This data is seasonally adjusted, and data for the most recent two months is preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — July 2010," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL-10-1076.