February 04, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment down in January

The unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage point to 5.6 percent in January. This decrease followed an increase of the same size in December.

Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, January 1999-January 2002
[Chart data—TXT]

In January, the unemployment rate for adult women decreased by 0.4 percentage point to 4.8 percent after rising by 0.3 percentage point in December. Jobless rates for adult men (5.2 percent), teenagers (16.1 percent), whites (5.0 percent), blacks (9.8 percent), and Hispanics (8.1 percent) showed little or no change.

The number of unemployed persons declined in January by 337,000, to 7.9 million (after seasonal adjustment). 

These data are products of the Current Population Survey (CPS). For more information, see The Employment Situation: January 2002, news release USDL. 02-47.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

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.

Find out more about the story of TED