The U.S. Unemployment Rate Rises By 0.1% In March To 5%

The Labor Department has released its unemployment figures for March. About 215,000 jobs were created in March, but that was not good enough to lower the unemployment rate -- which actually rose by 0.1% to 5%. The 215,000 new jobs couldn't keep up with a rise in the number of people in the civilian work force of 396,000.

It seems the economy is stalling, at least as far as employment goes. The new unemployment rate is only 0.5% below what it was a year ago. And for eight months now, the unemployment rate has been stuck between 5.1% and 4.9%. This is not a surprise, since the Republican's austerity budgets have taken millions of dollars out of the economy (and stunted demand).

Here are the relevant statistics for March:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

159,286,000

NUMBER OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

7,966,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

5.0%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............4.5%
Adult women...............4.6%
Teens (16-19)...............15.9%
Whites...............4.3%
Blacks...............9.0%
Hispanics...............5.6%
Asians...............4.0%
Less than HS diploma...............7.4%
HS diploma...............5.4%
Some college...............4.1%
Bachelor's degree or more...............2.6%

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

9,686,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

6.1%

NUMBER OF UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS (working part-time because full-time work is not available):

6,123,000

NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED/UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS:

15,809,000

UNEMPLOYMENT/UNDEREMPLOYMENT RATE:

9.9%