policy. we are focused on what it means for us and it means we are going to continue to push everything we can to complete this recovery and have even faster wage growth. so let s dig into some of the numbers. professional services health care retail all up. manufacturing added the most jobs of any month this year. why are we seeing better job numbers with these growth numbers? you know, we are seeing an economy that is very consistent. 15 of the last 17 months we added over 200,000 jobs. that s the first time that has happened in about two decades. month in and month out you are adding jobs bringing the unemployment rate down nearly a point over the last year. and it s bringing people back. the long term unemployed are down. the discouraged workers, fewer of them. part time is falling. you are seeing a real healing in the labor market. and let s talk about that
business services health care retail and leisure and hospitality. what does that say about the overall state of the economy if we can glean anything from it? well it says that the service sector of the economy is growing in a pretty robust way. but if you re exposed to some of the problems overseas say, our manufacturers who typically need to export their products to expand, then you re not doing so well. manufacturing employment has been flat for about five months. construction was also weak last month, although that may be just an anomaly. so i would say that the service side of the economy is pumping along really solidly on the production side. on the manufacturing side less so. the report found that the labor participation rate is near a 40-year low. is that a cause for concern? it is a cause for concern. but i think the 40-year low is a bit of a distraction. 40 years ago, we had a much