October 10, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment in September 

In September, the unemployment rate declined to 3.9 percent. Over the past year, the rate has ranged from 3.9 percent to 4.1 percent.

Unemployment rate, civilian population, October 1999-September 2000 (percent)
[Chart data—TXT]

Over the month, the unemployment rates decreased for adult women (3.5 percent) and blacks (7.0 percent). Rates for the other major worker groups—adult men (3.2 percent), teenagers (12.8 percent), whites (3.5 percent), and Hispanics (5.6 percent)—showed little or no change. 

These data are a product of the Current Population Survey. Find out more in "The Employment Situation: September 2000," news release USDL 00-284.

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