Unemployment Rate Remains Steady As Job Creation Drops

The Labor Department has released its statistics for the month of May. That shows that the creation of new jobs dropped sharply -- from 263,000 in April to only 75,000 in May. Also, the number of unemployed workers rose by 64,000 in May, but because of the rise in the number of civilian workers overall, the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6%.

Here are the relevant statistics for May:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

162,646,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

5,888,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

3.6%

DEMOGRAPHICS OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

Adult men...............3.3%
Adult women...............3.2%
Teens (16-19)...............12.7%
White...............3.3%
Black...............6.2%
Hispanic...............4.2%
Asian...............2.5%
Less than HS diploma...............5.4%
High School grad...............3.5%
Some College...............2.8%
Bachelor's degree or more...............2.1%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but no longer included in the official count):

1,395,000

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

7,283,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.48%