October 08, 2010
The unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent in September, despite a loss of 95,000 jobs — 77,000 of which were temporary Census positions. Including downward revisions in payroll employment for July and August, there are 110,000 fewer jobs than reported one month ago. While the overall unemployment rate did not change, the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) of different populations were not similarly affected. White adults saw relatively little change in their EPOPs (-0.1 percentage points for men, 0.1 percentage points for women), but the EPOP for black men age 20 and older fell 0.5 percentage points and 2.6 percentage points for black teens.
The change in EPOP for black teens is particularly striking since only 16.2 percent were employed as recently as May. Ten years ago, 29.5 percent of black teens were employed compared with 11.7 percent in September. The overal EPOP in September was unchanged at 58.5 percent.
For more information, read the full Jobs Byte.
