The unemployment rate measures the number adults who are looking for work but cannot find employment. It doesn’t count adults who have dropped out of the labor force and aren’t actively The unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in March 2017. The last time the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent was during the first half of 2007. The March unemployment rate of 4.5 percent resulted from there being 7.2 million unemployed people among the 160.2 million people in the labor force. U2 is larger than U1, but still remains substantially less than the official unemployment rate (U3). U3: This is the official unemployment rate, which is the proportion of the civilian labor force that is unemployed but actively seeking employment. U4: This is the official unemployment rate that is adjusted for discouraged workers. In addition, the official unemployment rate can understate the true unemployment rate because it doesn't account for people who are underemployed- i.e. working part-time when they would like to be working full-time- or who are working at jobs that are below their skill levels or pay grades. Furthermore, the unemployment rate doesn't report how For more information on how the adjusted and unadjusted unemployment rates compare and the purpose of adjustment see: How The Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate compares to the Unadjusted Rate. Unadjusted Unemployment Rate. This table shows Unadjusted U-3 Monthly Unemployment Rates from 1948 through the present:
The Official U.S Unemployment Rate “People are classified as Unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work The unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point in December 2018 to 3.9 percent. The rate was 4.1 percent in December 2017. BLS publishes a set of alternative measures of labor underutilization, known as U-1 through U-6. The U-6 rate was 7.6 percent in December 2018, down from 8.1 percent in December 2017. “The unemployment rate declined to 4.6 percent in November…” are the very first words of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ news release about the November 2016 survey data.
The unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in March 2017. The last time the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent was during the first half of 2007. The March unemployment rate of 4.5 percent resulted from there being 7.2 million unemployed people among the 160.2 million people in the labor force. U2 is larger than U1, but still remains substantially less than the official unemployment rate (U3). U3: This is the official unemployment rate, which is the proportion of the civilian labor force that is unemployed but actively seeking employment. U4: This is the official unemployment rate that is adjusted for discouraged workers. In addition, the official unemployment rate can understate the true unemployment rate because it doesn't account for people who are underemployed- i.e. working part-time when they would like to be working full-time- or who are working at jobs that are below their skill levels or pay grades. Furthermore, the unemployment rate doesn't report how For more information on how the adjusted and unadjusted unemployment rates compare and the purpose of adjustment see: How The Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate compares to the Unadjusted Rate. Unadjusted Unemployment Rate. This table shows Unadjusted U-3 Monthly Unemployment Rates from 1948 through the present: Step 1: Calculate the official unemployment rate (U-3) U-3 = 5.787 million unemployed workers / 164.546 million in the labor force = 3.5%. Step 2. Add in marginally attached workers. There were 1.440 million people who were marginally attached to the labor force. Add this to both the number of unemployed and the labor force.
U-1, persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force; U-2, job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force; U-3, total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (this is the definition used for the official unemployment rate);
U-3: This is considered the official unemployment rate by the Department of Labor and the one most often cited in the media. This rate includes all those who are unemployed and are seeking employment as well as those classified as U-1 and U-2. U3, or the U-3 unemployment rate, is the most commonly reported rate of unemployment in the United States and represents the number of people actively seeking a job. The U-6 rate, or U6, includes discouraged, underemployed, and unemployed workers in the country. These underemployed people make up a large part of the workforce. But the official unemployment rate (also known as the U-3 measure) doesn’t acknowledge them. Without addressing the issue of underemployment, the unemployment rate paints a distorted picture of where the labor market stands.