Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Further Statement by the President on Unemployment During March.

April 05, 1965

ON THURSDAY I reported that 1.7 million more people had jobs in March than a year earlier, and that the unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent, the lowest in more than 7 years. 1

1 See Item 156 [1].

Further analysis, now available, shows that these gratifying gains were shared by all groups:

--The number of adult men with jobs rose almost 2 percent over the year;

--The number of adult women at work rose more than 3 percent;

--The number of Negroes with jobs also rose more than 3 percent;

--The number of teenagers with jobs rose by almost 4 percent; and

--The number of unskilled workers in nonfarm jobs rose by almost 11 percent.

But there are still too many of our people unemployed, and we need to create a substantially larger number of jobs before we will be satisfied.

The unemployment rate among teenagers has fallen, but it is still 14 percent.

The adult male unemployment rate fell from 4 percent to 3 1/3 percent during the last year. But it has been as low as 2 percent in the postwar period.

Long-term unemployment has fallen by 300,000 since a year ago. But there are still 800,000 people who have been out of work for 15 weeks or more.

The number of unemployed Negroes has fallen by 85,000 since a year ago. But 744,000 Negroes were still unemployed in March.

The attack on our remaining unemployment must have two prongs: first, to educate, train, and retrain those who lack the skills needed for today's jobs; and second, to continue the brisk advance of our general prosperity.

The gains we have made show that business, labor, and Government working together can solve our number one domestic economic problem, and create job opportunities for all our people.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Further Statement by the President on Unemployment During March. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241967

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