Unemployment Rate Drops 0.2% In September

The Labor Department has released its official unemployment numbers for the month of September. It shows that the unemployment rate dropped 0.2% to 3.7%. This was not due to a robust job creation, since only 134,000 jobs were created in September -- the lowest number in the last six months. Part of it also has to be due to more people giving up on finding a decent job, and are no longer being counted by the federal government (the marginally-attached workers rose by 134,000).

Here are the relevant statistics for September:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

161,926,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

5,964,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

3.7%

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATES DEMOGRAPHICS:

Adult men...............3.4%
Adult women...............3.3%
Teens (16-19)...............12.8%
Whites...............3.3%
Blacks...............6.0%
Hispanics...............4.5%
Asians...............3.5%
Less than HS degree...............5.5%
HS grad...............3.7%
Some college...............3.2%
Bachelor's degree or more...............2.0%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (no longer counted):

1,577,000

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

7,541,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.65%