Sixty-One Million Jobs

The thriving U.S. economy, now in its 54th consecutive month of advance, is creating new jobs faster than automation is eliminating old ones. In mid-August, the Labor Department reported last week, the number of Americans on nonagricultural payrolls reached an all-time high of 61.1 million, 334,000 more than in July. During the same period, total unemployment dropped by 350,-000 to 3,300,000, although the jobless rate remained at July's 4.5% -- an eight-year low -- because of a temporary decrease in the work force.

Labor Department officials expect slight declines in unemployment for the next several months but hold out little hope that the Administration can soon reach its goal of reducing the rate to 4% . In addition to some 200,000 work ers who are considered permanently un employable, there are countless others who require lengthy retraining or have to be moved from depressed areas to where the jobs are. The rate is also swollen by the hundreds of thousands of Americans who seek only a few hours of work each week but until they find it are classified as unemployed.

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