Unemployment Rate Drops To 3.8% In February

The Labor Department released its monthly unemployment statistics on Friday. It showed that the economy produced a whopping 678,000 jobs in February. That was enough to drop the unemployment rate down by 0.2 points -- to 3.8%. This was in spite of a 304,000 growth in the size of the civilian labor force. 

Here are the relevant statistics for February:

SIZE OF CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

163,991,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

6,270,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

3.8%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............3.5%

Adult women...............3.6%

Teens (16-19)...............10.3%

White...............3.3%

Black...............6.6%

Asian...............3.1%

Hispanic...............4.4%

Less than HS diploma...............4.3%

HS graduate...............4.5%

Some college...............3.8%

Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.2%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not counted):

1,471,000

MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED:

7,741,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.72%