November 05, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment rate jumped in October

The unemployment rate rose by 0.5 percentage point to 5.4 percent in October, the highest level since December 1996.

Unemployment rate, January-October 2001 (seasonally adjusted)
[Chart data—TXT]

Since October 2000, when the unemployment rate reached its most recent low, the rate has increased by 1.5 percentage points. During that same period, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 2.2 million to 7.7 million.

The labor market data for the month of October are the first to reflect broadly the impact of the terrorist attacks of September 11. The labor market had been weakening before the attacks, and those events clearly exacerbated this weakness. It is not possible, however, to quantify the job-market effects of the terrorist attacks. 

These data are a product of the Current Population Survey. The above figures are all seasonally adjusted. Find out more in "The Employment Situation: October 2001," news release USDL 01-397.

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