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211,000
Number of jobs the American economy created in November, the government reported Friday, “a robust showing that all but guarantees policy makers at the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade when they meet this month,” the New York Times reports. “The unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent, unchanged from October.”
5.1%
The U.S. unemployment rate for August,down from 5.3 percent, the lowest since April 2008, ABC News reports. “The U.S. unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low in August as employers added a modest 173,000 jobs, a key piece of evidence for the Federal Reserve in deciding whether to raise interest rates from record lows later this month.”
5.3%
The unemployment rate for June — the lowest in seven years, as the U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs last month, Bloomberg reports.
+1 million
Number of new jobs the U.S. economy has added so far in 2015, according to CNNMoney. In a good sign for people looking for work, the U.S. economy gained 280,000 jobs in May. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney projected there would only be 222,000 jobs gains. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly in May to 5.5%, according to the Labor Department. That increase is a sign that more people returned to look for work in May, economists say.
50
Number of states where unemployment fell in 2014. “Unemployment fell in every state and the nation’s capital last year—something that hadn’t happened since 1984,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Unemployment fell the most in Illinois, where the rate dropped 2 percentage points from the prior year to an average 7.1%. The rate declined by 1.8 points in Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio. … North Dakota, at the center of the nation’s energy boom of the past few years, had the lowest jobless rate of any state at 2.8% last year.”
It’s been massaged, it’s been doctored.
— Rick Perry, telling a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition that they shouldn’t trust the official unemployment rate coming out of Washington, Huffington Post reports.
6.3%
Unemployment rate for April, down from 6.7% in March, according to Wonk Wire.
6%
Of American men ages 25 to 54 were without jobs in the early 1970s. By late 2007, it was 13%. In 2009, during the worst of the recession, nearly 20% didn’t have jobs, according to Wonk Wire.
4.9 million
Number of unemployed U.S. workers who will no longer receive unemployment benefits if the program expires, according to the Washington Post.
7.0%
The unemployment rate fell to the lowest percentage in five years last month. The U.S. economy added 203,000 jobs in November, beating expectations of about 180,000 jobs, the Wall Street Journal reports.
