March 10, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment and demographics in February 2009

The unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent in February 2009. Over the past 12 months, the unemployment rate has risen by 3.3 percentage points.

[Chart data—TXT]

The unemployment rate continued to trend upward in February for various demographic groups: adult men (8.1 percent), adult women (6.7 percent), whites (7.3 percent), blacks (13.4 percent), and Hispanics (10.9 percent). The jobless rate for teenagers was little changed from January at 21.6 percent.

These data are from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program, and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. More information can be found in "The Employment Situation: February 2009," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 09-0224.

Related TED article:

• Payroll employment in February 2009