Unemployment Rate Drops Back To 3.5% For September

 

The Labor Department released the unemployment statistics for September on Friday. It showed that the economy created about 263,000 jobs in September. That below the number created in the last few months, but was good enough to lower the unemployment rate back down to 3.5% (0.2% below the figure for August).

Here are the relevant statistics for September:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

164,689,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

5,753,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

3.5%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............3.3%

Adult women...............3.1%

Teens (16-19)...............11.4%

White...............3.1%

Black...............5.8%

Asian...............2.5%

Hispanic...............3.8%

No HS diploma...............5.6%

HS graduate...............3.7%

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

Bachelor's deg or more...............1.8%

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

1,600,000

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

7,353,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.46%