The Labor Department has released it official statistics for the month of November. The economy produced a fairly healthy 266,000 new jobs for the month. That was substantially more than the 40,000 rise in the number of civilian workers in the nation's workforce, so the official unemployment rate dropped back down to 3.5%.
Here are the relevant statistics for November:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE:
164,404,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
5,811,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
3.5%
DEMOGRAPHICS OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
Adult men...............3.2%
Adult women...............3.2%
Teens (16-19)...............12.0%
White...............3.2%
Black...............5.5%
Asian...............2.6%
Hispanic...............4.2%
Less than HS diploma...............5.3%
HS graduate...............3.7%
Some college...............2.9%
Bachelor's degree or more...............2.0%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED UNEMPLOYED (no longer counted):
1,246,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (official + marginally-attached):
7,057,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
4.29%
