The Unemployment Rate Drops To 3.7% For November

The Labor Department released its unemployment report for the month of November on Friday. It showed that the economy produced about 199,000 new jobs during the month. That was enough to reduce the unemployment rate by 0.2 points -- from 3.9% in October to 3.7% in November. This marks the 22nd month in a row that official unemployment has been below 4%.

Here are the relevant statistics for November:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

168,260,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

6,291,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

3.7%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............3.7%

Adult women...............3.1%

Teens (16-19)...............11.4%

Whites...............3.3%

Blacks...............5.8%

Hispanics...............4.6%

Asians...............3.5%

Less than HS diploma...............6.3%

HS graduate...............4.1%

Some college...............2.8%

Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.1%

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

1,585,000

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

7,876,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.68%