Charting the U.S. unemployment rate over the past year
The number of unemployed persons (6.8 million) and the unemployment rate (4.5 percent) were essentially unchanged in April, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The jobless rate has ranged from 4.4 to 4.6 percent since September 2006.
Over the month, the jobless rates for the major worker groups - adult men (4.0 percent), adult women (3.8 percent), teenagers (15.3 percent), whites (3.9 percent), blacks (8.2 percent), and Hispanics (5.4 percent) - showed little or no change.
This data is from the Current Population Survey program and is seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation: April 2007," news release USDL 07-0638.