The Labor Department has released its official unemployment numbers for the month of September. It shows that the unemployment rate dropped 0.2% to 3.7%. This was not due to a robust job creation, since only 134,000 jobs were created in September -- the lowest number in the last six months. Part of it also has to be due to more people giving up on finding a decent job, and are no longer being counted by the federal government (the marginally-attached workers rose by 134,000).
Here are the relevant statistics for September:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:
161,926,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
5,964,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
3.7%
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATES DEMOGRAPHICS:
Adult men...............3.4%
Adult women...............3.3%
Teens (16-19)...............12.8%
Whites...............3.3%
Blacks...............6.0%
Hispanics...............4.5%
Asians...............3.5%
Less than HS degree...............5.5%
HS grad...............3.7%
Some college...............3.2%
Bachelor's degree or more...............2.0%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (no longer counted):
1,577,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (official + marginally-attached):
7,541,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
4.65%