The Labor Department released its unemployment numbers for August on Friday. It showed that another 235,000 jobs were created in August. The media was critical, saying a larger number was expected. But 235K would be considered good in a normal economy, and should be considered good in the pandemic economy. It was good enough to lower the unemployment rate by 0.2 points -- from 5.4% in July to 5.2% in August.
Here are the relevant numbers for August:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:
161,537,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
8,384,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
5.2%
DEMOGRAPHICS OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
Adult men...............5.1%
Adult women...............4.8%
Teens (16-19)...............11.2%
Whites...............4.5%
Blacks...............8.8%
Asians...............4.6%
Hispanics...............6.4%
No HS diploma...............7.8%
HS graduate...............6.0%
Some college...............5.1%
Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.8%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but no longer counted):
1,577,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (official + marginally-attached):
9,961,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
6.17%