January 11, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment rate unchanged in December 2004

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

Unemployment rate, January 2004-December 2004
[Chart data—TXT]

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

Both the civilian labor force, at 148.2 million in December, and the labor force participation rate, at 66.0 percent, were about unchanged from the previous month.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see "The Employment Situation: December 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-30.

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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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