The Unemployment Rate For August Was 3.7%

The Labor Department released its unemployment numbers for August on Friday. It showed the economy had created a healthy 315,000 new jobs. The number of workers in the civilian work force increased by about 786,000 workers, and that caused the unemployment rate to rise by 0.2% to 3.7% for the month. It marks the seventh month in a row that the unemployment rate was below 4.0%.

Here are the relevant numbers for August:

CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

164,746,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

6,014,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

3.7%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

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

Adult women...............3.3%

Teens (16-19)...............10.4%

Whites...............3.2%

Blacks...............6.4%

Asians...............2.8%

Hispanics...............4.5%

Les than HS diploma...............6.2%

HS graduate...............4.2%

Some college...............2.9%

Bachelor's deg. or more............... 1.9%

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

1,434,000

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

7,448,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.5%