U.S. Unemployment Rate Drops To 3.5% In December

The Labor Department released its statistics for the month of December on Friday. It showed the economy had added 223,000 jobs in December. That was good enough to push the unemployment rate back down to 3.5% for December.

Here are the relevant statistics for December:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE:

164,966,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

5,722,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

3.5%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............3.1%

Adult women...............3.2%

Teens (16-19)...............10.4%

White...............3.0%

Black...............5.7%

Asian...............2.4%

Hispanic...............4.1%

Less than HS diploma...............5.0%

HS graduate...............3.6%

Some college...............2.9%

Bachelor's deg or more...............1.9%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not counted):

1,260,000

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

6,982,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.2%