Job Creation Remains Very Low As Unemployment Rises To 4.3% In August

The Labor Department released its unemployment report for August on Friday. It showed the economy only produced 22,000 jobs for the month. That makes four months in a row that job creation has been extremely low. The poor job creation contributed to a rise in the number of unemployed workers by about 148,000. The unemployment rate for August was 4.3% - the highest rate in more than a year. 

Here are the relevant statistics for August:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE

170,778,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS

7,384,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

4.3%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT

Adult men...............4.1%

Adult women...............3.8%

Teens (16-19)...............13.9%

Whites...............3.7%

Blacks...............7.5%

Asians...............3.6%

Hispanics...............5.3%

No HS diploma...............6.7%

HS graduate...............4.3%

Some college...............3.2%

Bachelor's degree or more...............2.7%

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

1,836,000

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

9,220,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

5.4%