The Labor Department released its unemployment report for August on Friday. It showed the economy produced 187,000 new jobs in August. There was a 736,000 worker increase in the civilian work force, and an increase of 514,000 unemployed workers. That all combined to increase the unemployment rate from 3.5% to 3.8%.
Here are the relevant statistics for August:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:
167,839,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
6,355,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
3.8%
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
Adult men...............3.7%
Adult women...............3.2%
Teens (16-19)...............12.2%
Whites...............3.4%
Blacks...............5.3%
Asians...............3.1%
Hispanics...............4.9%
No HS diploma...............5.4%
HS graduate...............3.8%
Some college...............3.0%
Bachelor's deg or more...............2.2%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not counted):
1,505,000
MOR REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (official + marginally-attached):
7,860,000
MORE REASISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
4.68%