September 09, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment rates in August

Both the unemployment rate, 5.7 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, 8.1 million, were little changed in August.

Unemployment rates, August 2002 (seasonally adjusted)
[Chart data—TXT]

Jobless rates for the major worker groups—adult men (5.2 percent), adult women (4.9 percent), teenagers (17.2 percent), whites (5.1 percent), blacks (9.6 percent), and Hispanics (7.5 percent)—showed little or no change from the previous month. 

The number of persons unemployed for 15 weeks or more was 2.8 million in August, down from the recent high of 3.1 million in June.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Data in this article are seasonally adjusted. Find out more in "The Employment Situation: August 2002," (PDF) (TXT) news release USDL 02-509.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

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