March 14, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment in February

Both the number of unemployed persons, 7.2 million, and the unemployment rate, 4.8 percent, were little changed in February 2006.

[Chart data—TXT]

A year earlier, the number of unemployed was 8.0 million, and the jobless rate was 5.4 percent.

Following a decline in January, the unemployment rate for adult men edged up to 4.2 percent in February. The jobless rate for the other major worker groups—adult women (4.3 percent), teenagers (15.4 percent), whites (4.1 percent), blacks (9.3 percent), and Hispanics (5.5 percent)—showed little or no change over the month.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see "The Employment Situation: February 2006" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-396.