The Unemployment Rate Dropped To 3.5% In July

 

The Labor Department released its official unemployment statistics on Friday. It showed the economy had produced a whopping 528,000 jobs in July. That was enough to push the unemployment rate down to 3.5%.

Here are the relevant statistics for the month of July:

SIZE OF CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:

163,960,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

5,670,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

3.5%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............3.2%

Adult women...............3.1%

Teens (16-19)...............11.5%

Whites...............3.1%

Blacks...............6.0%

Asians...............2.6%

Hispanics...............3.9%

Less than HS diploma...............5.9%

HS graduate...............3.6%

Some college...............2.8%

Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.0%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not counted):

1,545,000

MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (official + marginally-attached):

7,215,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.4%