Unemployment Rate Drops By A Huge 0.5% In July

The Labor Department released its unemployment statistics for July on Friday. It showed the largest drop in the unemployment rate since August of 2020 -- from 5.9% in June to 5.4% in July (a drop of 0.5%). This was fueled by a huge increase in jobs created -- about 943,000. This is a significant improvement, but we still need to get more people vaccinated and achieve herd immunity to get the rate back down to normal.

Here are the relevant statistics for the month of July:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE:

161,347,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

8,702,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

5.4%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............5.4%

Adult women...............5.0%

Teens (16-19)...............9.6%

Whites...............4.8%

Blacks...............8.2%

Asians...............5.3%

Hispanics...............6.6%

Less than HS diploma...............9.5%

HS graduate...............6.3%

Some college...............5.0%

Bachelor's deg. or more...............3.1%

MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but no longer counted):

1,872,000

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

10,574,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

6.55%