These figures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.8 per cent, and the number of unemployed people was 6.3 million.

Employment growth in August was in line with average job growth in recent months, but was below the average monthly gain of 202,000 over the prior 12 months.

Employment in manufacturing edged down in August (minus 24,000), reflecting a decline of 25,000 in durable goods industries. Manufacturing employment has shown little net change over the year.

Among the unemployed, the number of people on temporary layoff declined by 190,000 to 872,000 in August, mostly offsetting an increase in the prior month. The number of permanent job losers was essentially unchanged at 1.7 million in August, a BLS release said.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was virtually unchanged at 1.5 million in the month. The long-term unemployed accounted for 21.3 per cent of all unemployed.

The labour force participation rate (LFPR) was 62.7 per cent in August and is little changed over the year. The employment-population ratio also was unchanged in August, at 60 per cent, but was down by 0.4 percentage point over the year.

The number of people not in the labour force who currently want a job, at 5.6 million, changed little in August. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the four weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job.

Among those not in the labour force who wanted a job, the number of people marginally attached to the labour force, at 1.4 million, was little changed in August.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)