TED: The Editor's Desk

November 06, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment rate in October 2006

The number of unemployed persons (6.7 million) edged down in October, and the unemployment rate declined to 4.4 percent.

Unemployment rate, October 2005-October 2006
[Chart data—TXT]

A year earlier, the number of unemployed persons was 7.4 million and the jobless rate was 4.9 percent.

Unemployment rates for most major worker groups—adult men, teenagers, whites, and blacks—showed little or no change over the month. The jobless rates for adult women and Hispanics fell in October.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted. More information can be found in "The Employment Situation: October 2006" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-1903.

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009

The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, though many of the statistics that describe the U.S. economy have yet to return to their pre-recession values. In this Spotlight, we present BLS data that compare the recent recession to previous recessions. Read more »