October 13, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment in September 2004

In September, the unemployment rate for all workers held at 5.4 percent, seasonally adjusted.

[Chart data—TXT]

The jobless rates for the major worker groups—adult men (5.0 percent), adult women (4.7 percent), teenagers (16.6 percent), whites (4.7 percent), blacks (10.3 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (7.1 percent)—showed little or no change in September. The unemployment rate for Asians was 4.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted.

The jobless rate for all workers is down from its most recent high of 6.3 percent in June 2003; most of this decline occurred in the second half of last year.

The data in this report are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see The Employment Situation: September 2004 (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-2053.