Jobless rate hits record low for Hispanic Americans
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this March 4 photo a worker cleans a jet bridge before passengers boarded an Alaska Airlines flight to Portland, Ore., at Paine Field in Everett, Wash.
WASHINGTON >> The unemployment rate for most major demographic groups fell in February, with the rate for Hispanic and Latino Americans hitting a record low of 4.3 percent.
It wasn’t entirely good news. More Hispanic and Latino Americans stopped look for work, so they weren’t classified as unemployed. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively looking for a job. When fewer people seek a job, the unemployment rate often declines.
In addition, the jobless rate for African-Americans, which hit a record low of 5.9 percent in May and has frequently been celebrated by President Donald Trump, rose for a third straight month in February to 7 percent, its highest point in more than a year.
The Labor Department said today that employers added just 20,000 jobs overall last month. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent from 4 percent in January.
Last month, the unemployment rate fell partly because thousands of federal workers had been temporarily counted as unemployed in January during the partial government shutdown, which ended Jan. 25. Once these workers returned to their jobs, they were again counted as employed in February.
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The data for demographic groups came from a survey of households that is part of the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report.
| Unemployment rate by group: | |||
| (Numbers in percentages) | February 2019 | January 2019 | February 2018 |
| White | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.7 |
| Black | 7.0 | 6.8 | 6.8 |
| Asian | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.0 |
| Hispanic or Latino ethnicity* | 4.3 | 4.9 | 4.9 |
| Adult men | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.7 |
| Adult women | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.8 |
| Teenagers | 13.4 | 12.9 | 14.4 |
| 20-24 years old | 7.2 | 7.6 | 6.8 |
| 25-54 years old | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.5 |
| 55 and over | 2.7 | 3.2 | 3.2 |
| Veterans of Iraq/Afghanistan* | 3.4 | 4.2 | 3.3 |
| No high school diploma | 5.3 | 5.7 | 5.6 |
| High school graduate | 3.8 | 3.8 | 4.4 |
| Some college | 3.2 | 3.4 | 3.5 |
| College graduate | 2.2 | 2.4 | 2.2 |
| Duration of Unemployment: | |||
| Average length (weeks) | 21.7 | 20.5 | 22.9 |
| Jobless 6 months or more (pct.) | 20.4 | 19.3 | 21.0 |
| *Includes all races | |||
| Source: Labor Department | |||
