Due To Sluggish Job Creation The Unemployment Rate Rose To 4.2% In July

The Labor Department released its unemployment report for July on Friday. It showed the economy only produced a meager 73,000 jobs in July. Making matters worse, the department also revised downward the number of jobs created in the last two months by over 250,000. That means there has been stagnant job growth for three months in a row now. Employers are not yet laying off large numbers of workers, but they are not hiring either. The sluggish job growth pushed the unemployment rate up slightly to 4.2% for July.

Here are the relevant statistics for July:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

170,342,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

7,236,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.2%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............4.0%

Adult women...............3.7%

Teens (16-19)...............15.2%

Whites...............3.7%

Blacks...............7.2%

Asians...............3.9%

Hispanics...............5.0%

No HS diploma...............5.5%

HS graduate...............4.4%

Some college...............3.0%

Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.7%

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

1,689,000

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

8,925,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

5.2%