May 07, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment in April 2007

The number of unemployed persons (6.8 million) and the unemployment rate (4.5 percent) were essentially unchanged in April.

Unemployment rate, April 2006-April 2007
[Chart data—TXT]

The jobless rate has ranged from 4.4 to 4.6 percent since September 2006.

Over the month, the jobless rates for the major worker groups—adult men (4.0 percent), adult women (3.8 percent), teenagers (15.3 percent), whites (3.9 percent), blacks (8.2 percent), and Hispanics (5.4 percent)—showed little or no change.

These data are from the Current Population Survey program and are seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation: April 2007" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-0638.

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