A job applicant holds a flyer during the New York Public Library’s annual Bronx Career Fair and Expo at the Bronx Library Center in the Bronx, New York, U.S., Friday, September 6, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Data released Friday showed white U.S. unemployment rates rose slightly in October by the Department of Labor.
In October, the unemployment rate among white Americans rose to 3.8% from 3.6% the previous month. This trend is contrary to the country’s overall unemployment rate, which held steady at 4.1% in October compared with September, as well as that of other demographic groups.
Unemployment rates for black and Hispanic workers remained unchanged last month at 5.7% and 5.1%, respectively. The unemployment rate among Asian Americans fell from 4.1% to 3.9%.
On the other hand, unemployment rates rose slightly for both white men and women in October. For men, this increased from 3.4% to 3.5%. For women, the share rose from 3.1% to 3.3%.
The Hispanic female unemployment rate climbed to 5.2% from 4.8%, while the male unemployment rate fell from 4.1% to 4.0%. The unemployment rate for black women also fell from 5.3% to 4.9%, while the unemployment rate for black men climbed from 5.1% to 5.7%.
In the view of Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, this jump shows the distortion and fluctuation of monthly data, especially considering that the black unemployment rate fell from 5.9% in August to 5.1% in September.
“I think the big jump in black male unemployment that we saw in October was really just a re-normalization after an unusually big drop in September,” she told CNBC.
Shierholz added that October’s unemployment rate was also affected by hurricanes and strikes, making it more difficult to compare those data points.
“You never want to focus on one month’s worth of data, and that’s more true now than ever, because this month’s data is heavily skewed by these unusual temporary factors,” she said.
The overall labor force participation rate (the percentage of the population that is employed or actively looking for work) fell to 62.6% in October from 62.7% in September.
The labor force participation rate for white workers also fell to 62.2% in October from 62.4% the previous month, while for Hispanic workers it fell to 66.9% from 67.4%. Among Asian workers, the participation rate rose to 65.5% in October from 65.3% in September, while the participation rate among Black Americans held steady at 62.9%.
—CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report.
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