The September Unemployment Rate Dropped To 4.1%

The Labor Department released its unemployment report for September on Friday. It showed a fairly healthy 254,000 jobs were created in the month. That was good enough to reduce the unemployment rate to 4.1% (from 4.2% in August). It's the second straight month the rate dropped by 0.1%.

Here are the relevant statistics for September:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

168,699,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

6,834,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.1%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............3.7%

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

Teens (16-19)...............14.3%

Whites...............3.6%

Blacks...............5.7%

Asians...............4.1%

Hispanics...............5.1%

No HS diploma...............6.8%

HS graduate...............4.0%

Some college...............3.4%

Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.3%

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

1,605,000

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

8,439,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

5.0%