Title:Jobless Rates Drop for Recent Veterans and Older Workers
Author:Associated Press - Used with permission
Date:June 2015
Source:hosted.ap.org
Recent veterans fared well on the jobs front in May. The unemployment rate for men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan dropped to 5.4 percent - the lowest level in a year - from 6.9 percent a month earlier.
Older workers also benefited from the overall bounce in the U.S. job market, which added a solid 280,000 positions in May and underscored confidence among employers. The unemployment rate for workers 55 and older fell to 3.7 percent from 4 percent in April.
Not all groups came out ahead.
Young workers in their early 20s lost ground. So did black Americans. The unemployment rate for black workers rose to 10.2 percent from a nearly seven-year-low of 9.6 percent in April.
The data for various demographic groups came from a survey of households that is part of the Labor Department's monthly jobs data.
Unemployment rate by group:
(Numbers in percentages) May-15 Apr-15 May-14
White 4.7 4.7 5.4
Black 10.2 9.6 11.4
Asian 4.1 4.4 5.6
Hispanic or Latino ethnicity 6.7 6.9 7.7
Adult men 5 5 5.9
Adult women 5 4.9 5.7
Teenagers 17.9 17.1 19.2
20-24 years old 10.1 9.6 11.1
25-54 years old 4.7 4.6 5.4
55 and over 3.7 4 4.5
Veterans of Iraq/Afghanistan 5.4 6.9 5.3
No high school diploma 8.6 8.6 9.2
High school graduate 5.8 5.4 6.5
Some college 4.4 4.7 5.5
College graduate 2.7 2.7 3.2
Duration of Unemployment:
Average length (weeks) 30.7 30.8 34.3
Jobless 6 months or more (pct.) 28.6 29 34.3
Not seasonally adjusted
Includes all races
Source: Labor Department
