Unemployment Rate Remains Steady At 4.9% For July

The Labor Department has released its unemployment statistics for the month of July. It showed the economy produced 255,000 new jobs last month. Unfortunately, that wasn't even enough to cover the growth in the civilian work force (which grew by 407,000). That means the unemployment rate was doing good to remain at 4.9% -- the same as it was in June.

The bad part is that the unemployment rate has only been below 4.9% for one month in the last year (4.7% in May). All the other months were between 4.9% and 5.1%. It seems that the unemployment situation has gotten about as low as it can go with some significant government help. The government needs to put new money into the economy, but that won't happen as long as the Republicans control any part of the government. They remain locked into their failed "trickle-down" economic theory, which takes money out of the economy and gives it to the rich and the corporations.

Here are the relevant statistics for July:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

159,287,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

7,770,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.9%

OFFICIAL DEMOGRAPHIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATES:

Adult men...............4.6%
Adult women...............4.3%
Teenagers (16-19)...............15.6%
Whites...............4.3%
Blacks...............8.4%
Hispanics...............5.4%
Asians...............3.8%
No HS diploma...............6.3%
HS grad...............5.0%
Some college...............4.3%
Bachelor's degree or more...............2.5%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (who are no longer counted in the official count of the unemployed):

1,950,000

MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (official + marginally-attached):

9,720,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

6.1%

NUMBER OF UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS (working part-time because they can't find full-time work):

5,940,000