Unemployment rate demographics, September 2010

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers (26.0 percent), whites (8.7 percent), blacks (16.1 percent), and Hispanics (12.4 percent) showed little or no change in September.

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The unemployment rate for adult men (9.8 percent) and adult women (8.0 percent) also showed little or no change in September.

The unemployment rate for all workers held at 9.6 percent and the number of unemployed persons, at 14.8 million, was essentially unchanged.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over), at 6.1 million, was little changed over the month but was down by 640,000 since a series high of 6.8 million in May. In September, 41.7 percent of unemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more.

In September, both the civilian labor force participation rate, at 64.7 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 58.5 percent, were unchanged.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose by 612,000 over the month to 9.5 million. Over the past 2 months, the number of such workers has increased by 943,000. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in September, up from 2.2 million a year earlier (not seasonally adjusted). These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted (except as noted). More information can be found in "The Employment Situation—September 2010" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-1393.