April 03, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment in 2005

Last year, the unemployment rate continued the downward trend that began in 2003, declining to 5.0 percent by the fourth quarter of 2005.

[Chart data—TXT]

The rate had been 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004.

For most major worker groups, the unemployment rate continued to edge down in 2005. The unemployment rate for adult men, at 4.3 percent in the last quarter of 2005, was 0.6 percentage point lower than a year earlier. The jobless rate for women edged down by 0.2 percentage point over the year to 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005. For teenagers, the jobless rate was little changed in 2005.

The unemployment rate for whites, at 4.3 percent, was down over the year by 0.3 percentage point. For blacks, the unemployment rate dropped 1.1 percentage points to 9.7 percent. For Hispanics, the unemployment rate decreased in 2005 to 6.0 percent, down from 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Find more information in "Lower unemployment in 2005," by Emy Sok, Monthly Labor Review, March 2006.