What it measures
The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed people as a percentage of the labour force, which is everyone who has a job or is looking for one. People who are not looking, such as retirees or students, are outside the labour force and do not count as unemployed.
Who publishes it and when
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes it in the monthly Employment Situation report, at the same moment as Non-Farm Payrolls: usually the first Friday of the month at 08:30 New York time.
How it is put together
It comes from the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of households, not from company payrolls. Because the two surveys are different, the unemployment rate and the payroll count can sometimes tell different stories in the same month.
The rate is shown to one decimal place, and small changes of a tenth of a point can be within the survey's normal margin of error.
What traders watch
Traders read it together with payrolls and wages. They also watch the participation rate: unemployment can fall because people stop looking for work, which is not the same as more people finding jobs.
How markets have usually reacted
A rise has often weighed on the dollar and U.S. yields and supported gold, as markets expect easier policy; a fall has often had the opposite effect. Its effect is usually mixed with the payroll headline released at the same time.
Common mistakes
- Reading a 0.1 point change as a turning point.
- Ignoring the participation rate, which can move the unemployment rate for reasons that are not about jobs.
How a higher or lower figure is usually read
A higher unemployment rate than last month is usually read as negative for the U.S. dollar; a lower one as supportive. Not a signal.
Release history
No past releases recorded yet.
Related news
- US Non-Farm Payrolls
- US Average Hourly Earnings
- US Initial Jobless Claims
- US JOLTS Job Openings
- Economic calendar: every release this week in your time zone
- Lot size calculator: keep your risk the same around news
- How to use an economic calendar: what happens around a release, and how to plan for it
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Official source
This product uses the FRED® API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Calendar data: fred.stlouisfed.org
Published by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): www.bls.gov