May 06, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment demographics, April 2008

The overall unemployment rate, at 5.0 percent, was little changed in April.

Unemployment rates by demographic group, February-April 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

The unemployment rates for most major worker groups--adult men (4.6 percent), teenagers (15.4 percent), whites (4.4 percent), blacks (8.6 percent), and Hispanics (6.9 percent)--showed little or no change over the month.

The jobless rate for adult women decreased to 4.3 percent in April, nearly offsetting an increase in the prior month.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Learn more in "The Employment Situation: April 2008" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 08-0588.

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