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

Unemployment rate trending down

The jobless rate in June 2005 was 5.0 percent, seasonally adjusted. It has trended downward since February 2005 and is now 1.3 percentage points lower than its most recent high in June 2003.

[Chart data—TXT]

The number of unemployed persons was little changed over the month at 7.5 million, but is down by 1.7 million since June 2003.

The jobless rates for most major worker groups—adult men (4.3 percent), adult women (4.6 percent), whites (4.3 percent), blacks (10.3 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (5.8 percent)—showed little or no change in June. The unemployment rate for teenagers edged down to 16.4 percent over the month.

The number of long-term unemployed persons—those unemployed 27 weeks or longer—fell to 1.3 million in June. This group accounted for 17.8 percent of total unemployment, down from 20.1 percent in May.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see "The Employment Situation: June 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-1302.