December 06, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment in November 2004

Both the number of unemployed persons, 8.0 million, and the unemployment rate, 5.4 percent, were about unchanged in November.

Unemployment rate, June 2003-November 2004
[Chart data—TXT]

The jobless rate has been either 5.4 or 5.5 percent in each month since July. This is slightly below the rates that prevailed in the first half of 2004.

The civilian labor force rose by 439,000 in November to 148.3 million; the labor force participation rate was 66.1 percent.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see "The Employment Situation: November 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-2408.

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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