Unemployment rate 9.1 percent in August 2011

The number of unemployed persons, at 14.0 million, was essentially unchanged in August, and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent. The rate has shown little change since April.

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Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (8.9 percent), adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (25.4 percent), whites (8.0 percent), blacks (16.7 percent), and Hispanics (11.3 percent) showed little or no change in August.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was about unchanged at 6.0 million in August and accounted for 42.9 percent of the unemployed.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose from 8.4 million in July to 8.8 million in August. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see “The Employment Situation – August 2011” (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-1277.