On Friday, the Labor Department released its unemployment report for January. It showed the economy created a very healthy 353,000 jobs during the month. That was good enough to keep the unemployment rate at 3.7% for the third month in a row.
Here are the relevant statistics for January of 2024.
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:
167,276,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
6,124,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
3.7%
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
Adult men...............3.6%
Adult women...............3.2%
Teens (16-19)...............10.6%
Whites...............3.4%
Blacks...............5.3%
Asians...............2.9%
Hispanics...............5.0%
Less than HS diploma...............6.0%
HS graduate...............4.3%
Some college...............3.3%
Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.1%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not counted):
1,654,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (official + marginally-attached):
7,778,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
4.6%
