The Labor Department released its monthly statistics on Friday. It showed that the economy has produced 379,000 jobs in February. In a normal economy, that would have been great, but in this economy with millions still out of work, it was enough only to drop the unemployment rate to 6.2% (only 0.1% below the rate in January).
Here are the relevant statistics for the month of February:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:
160,211,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
9,972,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
6.2%
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
Adult men...............6.0%
Adult women...............5.9%
Teens (16-19)...............13.9%
White...............5.6%
Black...............9.9%
Asian...............5.1%
Hispanic...............8.5%
Less than HS diploma...............10.1%
HS graduate...............7.2%
Some college...............5.9%
Bachelor's deg. or more...............3.8%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (Unemployed but no longer counted):
1,890,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
11,862,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
7.4%