Unemployment Rate Drops To 5.2% For August

 

The Labor Department released its unemployment numbers for August on Friday. It showed that another 235,000 jobs were created in August. The media was critical, saying a larger number was expected. But 235K would be considered good in a normal economy, and should be considered good in the pandemic economy. It was good enough to lower the unemployment rate by 0.2 points -- from 5.4% in July to 5.2% in August.

Here are the relevant numbers for August:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

161,537,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

8,384,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

5.2%

DEMOGRAPHICS OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............5.1%

Adult women...............4.8%

Teens (16-19)...............11.2%

Whites...............4.5%

Blacks...............8.8%

Asians...............4.6%

Hispanics...............6.4%

No HS diploma...............7.8%

HS graduate...............6.0%

Some college...............5.1%

Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.8%

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

1,577,000

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

9,961,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

6.17%