February 09, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment rate in January

The unemployment rate, at 5.6 percent, was little changed in January in comparison to December. However, the rate was down from its recent high of 6.3 percent in June 2003.

Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, January 2003–January 2004
[Chart data—TXT]

Unemployment rates for most major worker groups—adult men (5.1 percent), adult women (5.0 percent), teenagers (16.7 percent), whites (4.9 percent) and blacks (10.5 percent)—were little changed in January. The unemployment rate for Hispanics rose to 7.3 percent over the month.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Data in this article are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise stated. For more information, see The Employment Situation: January 2004 (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-120.

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