Unemployment Rate Rises By 0.1% In January

The Labor Department released its statistics for January on Friday. The economy produced about 225,000 new jobs. But that was not enough to keep the unemployment rate from rising. The official unemployment rate rose by 0.1% (from 3.5% in December to 3.6% in January). The official number of unemployed workers also rose by about 139,000 (from 5,753,000 in December to 5,892,000 in January).

Here are the relevant statistics for January of 2020:

SIZE OF CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

164,606,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

5,892,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

3.6%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

Adult men...............3.3%
Adult women...............3.2%
Teenagers (16-19)...............12.2%
White...............3.1%
Black...............6.0%
Asian...............3.0%
Hispanic...............4.3%
Less than HS diploma...............5.5%
HS graduate...............3.8%
Some college...............2.8%
Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.0%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not included in official count):

1,342,000

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

7,234,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.39%