There was an increase of 745 thousand persons (2.4 %) in the labor force from April 1997 to April 1998.

Labor force is 1.5 million less than in April 1998, bringing number of unemployed down by 1.5 million and unemployment rate down from 13.3 percent to 8.9 in July.

Labor force was 1.013 million more than in October 1997, with 374 thousand finding work bringing the number of unemployed to 639 thousand and the unemployment rate to 9.6 percent.