Unemployment Rate For February Dropped 0.1% To 6.2%

The Labor Department released its monthly statistics on Friday. It showed that the economy has produced 379,000 jobs in February. In a normal economy, that would have been great, but in this economy with millions still out of work, it was enough only to drop the unemployment rate to 6.2% (only 0.1% below the rate in January).

Here are the relevant statistics for the month of February:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

160,211,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

9,972,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

6.2%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............6.0%

Adult women...............5.9%

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

White...............5.6%

Black...............9.9%

Asian...............5.1%

Hispanic...............8.5%

Less than HS diploma...............10.1%

HS graduate...............7.2%

Some college...............5.9%

Bachelor's deg. or more...............3.8%

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

1,890,000

MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

11,862,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

7.4%