The Unemployment Rate Climbs To 4.4% As The Economy Loses 92,000 Jobs

The Labor Department released its unemployment report for February on Friday. It was not good news. Instead of the economy adding jobs, it actually lost about 92,000 jobs in February. That raised the unemployment rate to 4.4% for the month.

Here are the relevant statistics for February:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE:

170,483,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

7,571,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.4%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

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

Adult women...............4.1%

Teens (16-19)...............14.9%

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

Blacks...............7.7%

Asians...............4.8%

Hispanics...............5.2%

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

HS graduate...............4.8%

Some college...............3.5%

Bachelor's deg. or more...............3.0%

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

1,619,000

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

9,190,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

5.39%