June 11, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment rate at 5.8 percent in May

The number of unemployed persons (8.4 million) and the unemployment rate (5.8 percent) were little changed over the month. The May unemployment rate is 1.9 percentage points above its most recent low of 3.9 percent in October 2000, and the number of unemployed persons is 2.8 million higher.

Unemployed 27 weeks and over as a share of total unemployed, May 2001-May 2002 (seasonally adjusted)
[Chart data—TXT]

The number of long-term unemployed persons—those unemployed 27 weeks or longer—rose by 142,000 in May, following increases of similar size in March and April. This measure has increased by about 1 million persons over the past 12 months.

These data are a product of the Current Population Survey. The above figures are seasonally adjusted. Find out more in "The Employment Situation: May 2002," news release USDL 02-332.

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