The Labor Department released its unemployment figures on Friday. It showed that the economy created 263,000 new jobs in November. That was good enough to keep the unemployment rate at 3.7% -- marking the 10th month in a row with an unemployment rate below 4%.
Here are the relevant statistics for November:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:
164,481,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
6,011,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
3.7%
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
Adult men...............3.4%
Adult women...............3.3%
Teens (16-19)...............11.3%
Whites...............3.2%
Blacks...............5.7%
Asians...............2.7%
Hispanics...............3.9%
No HS diploma...............4.4%
HS graduate...............3.9%
Some college...............3.2%
Bachelor's deg. or more............... 2.0%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but no longer counted):
1,504,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (marginally-attached + official):
7,515,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
4.57%
