The Labor Department released their statistics for February on Friday. It showed the economy had produced a fairly healthy 273,000 jobs in February. That, combined with a 60,000 decrease in the size of the civilian work force, was enough to drop the official unemployment rate by 0.1% -- from 3.6% in January to 3.5% in February.
But the thing on everyone's mind right now is what effect will the Coronavirus have on the economy. It has already caused a sharp drop in the stock market. If it continues to spread rapidly, which is likely (at least for March), will it affect business profits -- causing them to lay off workers?
Here are the relevant statistics for February:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE
164,546,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS
5,787,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
3.5%
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT
Adult men...............3.3%
Adult women...............3.1%
Teenagers (16-19)...............11.0%
White...............3.1%
Black...............5.8%
Asian...............2.5%
Hispanic...............4.4%
Less than HS degree...............5.7%
HS graduate...............3.6%
Some college...............3.0%
Bachelor's deg. or more...............1.9%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but no longer counted)
1,440,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (official + marginally-attached)
7,227,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
4.39%