A tale of 2 US employment surveys, at a glance


Associated Press

Posted on September 7, 2012 at 3:31 PM

Updated Friday, Sep 7 at 3:32 PM

The U.S. economy added only 96,000 jobs in August, below July's gain. Yet the unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent, the steepest drop since January.

Why did the rate fall so much when the economy gained only a small number of jobs?


One is called the payroll survey. It asks mostly large companies and government agencies how many people they employed during the month. This survey produces the number of jobs gained or lost. In August, the payroll survey showed that companies added 103,000 jobs, and federal, state and local governments cut 7,000.


In August, the household survey showed that the number of people who said they were unemployed fell by 250,000. But they didn't get jobs — the report showed the number of employed people also dropped in August. Instead, the unemployment rate declined because those 250,000 people gave up on their job searches and weren't counted as part of the overall work force.



By contrast, the payroll survey seeks information from 140,000 companies and government agencies — and they employ roughly one-third of non-farm employees. The employers send forms to the Labor Department noting how many people they employ. They also provide wages, hours and other details.


Economists note that the surveys tend to even out over time. In the past twelve months, the payroll surveys have shown that employers added roughly 1.8 million jobs. The household surveys have shown that 2.1 million more people said they found work.