Unemployment Rate
What is Unemployment Rate?
The share of the labor force that is jobless but available and actively looking for work.
Understanding Unemployment Rate
To be counted as unemployed, a person must have no job, be available to work, and have looked for work in the past four weeks. People who are not looking, such as retirees or students, are outside the labor force.
Because people who give up looking are no longer counted, the rate can fall even when the job market weakens, so economists also watch participation and broader measures like U-6.
Formula
Example
With 6.4 million unemployed in a labor force of 160 million, the unemployment rate is 4%.