April 05, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment rate 5.7 percent in March

The unemployment rate, 5.7 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, 8.4 million, were essentially unchanged in March. Both measures remained below their recent highs of June 2003.

[Chart data—TXT]

Unemployment rates in March for the major worker groups—adult men (5.2 percent), adult women (5.1 percent), teenagers (16.5 percent), whites (5.1 percent), blacks (10.2 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (7.4 percent)—showed little or no change over the month.

In March, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons increased to 4.7 million, about the same level as in January. These individuals indicated that they would like to work full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time jobs.

The data in this report are from the Current Population Survey. Data in this article are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see "The Employment Situation: March 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-596.