April 23, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment in 2007

The number of unemployed persons was 7.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, an increase of 600,000 compared with the level in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Unemployment in the civilian noninstitutional population aged 16 years and older, quarterly averages, seasonally adjusted, 2006 IV-2007 IV
[Chart data—TXT]

The unemployment rate for persons aged 16 years and older was 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, up from 4.4 percent in the same quarter a year earlier; it remained below the 10-year averages for the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see "Household survey indicators weaken in 2007," (PDF) by James Marschall Borbely, Monthly Labor Review, March 2008.