The Labor Department released its unemployment report for April on Friday. It showed the economy produced about 175,000 new jobs, and the official unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.9%. That marks the 27th month in a row that the unemployment rate was below 4% (and ties the record set in 1952-53).
Here are the relevant statistics for April of 2024:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:
167,982,000
NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
6,492,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
3.9%
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
Adult men...............3.6%
Adult women...............3.5%
Teens (16-19)...............11.7%
White...............3.5%
Black...............5.6%
Asian...............2.8%
Hispanic...............4.8%
Less than HS grad...............6.0%
HS graduate...............4.0%
Some college...............3.3%
Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.2%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not counted):
1,565,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (official + marginally-attached):
8,057,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
4.79%