The unemployment rate was 7.9% in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s down half a percentage point from the previous month but still up 4.4% from February before COVID-19 shutdowns began. An estimated 12.6 million people remained out of work in September, up 6.8 million from February. Others left the workforce: The labor force participation rate — the percentage of the population either working or actively seeking work — was down by two percentage points compared to February, at 61.4%.
Though unemployment declined overall from August to September, the month-over-month change was not the same for all groups. Among those with statistically significant shifts in their unemployment rates, the rate declined the most among Asian Americans (from 10.7% to 8.9%), followed by white Americans (from 7.3% to 7%). The month-over-month changes were not statistically significant among Black and Hispanic Americans, whose unemployment rates stood at 12.1% and 10.3%, respectively, in September. The jobless rate also fell among adults as a whole, with a statistically significant change, but remained stagnant for teenagers, at 15.9%.
