U.3 fell in May to 4.3%.

Posted - Filed under Data News, Household Survey.

For more charts and tables at finer levels of detail, please visit our Unemployment Dataset Page.

U3 unemployment rate

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The BLS U.3 unemployment rate fell in May to 4.3% from 4.4% in April. The Labor Force Participation rate fell to 62.7% from 62.9%. The Employment/Population Ratio fell to 60% from 60.2%. The contribution of these two factors to the Unemployment Rate is shown in the chart below.

U3 Contributions

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The relationship between the three measures is as follows:

UR = (LR – ER) / LR

Where LR is the Labor Force Participation Rate, and ER is the Employment Ratio. Note how a decrease in the participation rate on its own, reduces the unemployment rate: The number of available workers drops, and thus there are relatively fewer unemployed – even in the absence of job growth. This is what has happened in the recovery since the “Great Recession”.

Labor Force Participation Rate

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Employment Population Ratio

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More detailed Labor Force Participation Charts and Employment Ratio Charts  
U.S. Unemployment Rate. Seasonally Adjusted.
Total Labor Force Mlns Rate (%) Monthly Change (%pts) Year/Year Change (%pts)
May 2016 May 2017 May 2016 Mar. 2017 Apr. 2017 May 2017 Mar. 2017 Apr. 2017 May 2017 Mar. 2017 Apr. 2017 May 2017
All Ages (16+) 158.5 159.8 4.7 4.5 4.4 4.3 -0.2 -0.1 -0.1 -0.5 -0.6 -0.4
16 to 19 years 5.9 5.9 16.2 13.7 14.7 14.3 -1.3 1.0 -0.4 -2.2 -1.3 -1.9
20 to 24 years 15.3 15.2 8.3 7.3 7.3 6.7 -0.7 0.0 -0.6 -1.1 -1.5 -1.6
25 years and over 137.2 138.7 3.8 3.8 3.6 3.6 -0.1 -0.2 0.0 -0.4 -0.5 -0.2
25 to 34 years 35.3 35.9 5.0 4.5 4.4 4.9 -0.3 -0.1 0.5 -0.7 -0.8 -0.1
35 to 44 years 32.7 32.9 3.5 3.9 3.6 3.3 -0.2 -0.3 -0.3 0.0 -0.4 -0.2
45 to 54 years 33.8 33.6 3.4 3.2 3.4 3.2 0.0 0.2 -0.2 -0.4 -0.1 -0.2
55 years and over 35.4 36.3 3.3 3.4 3.2 3.1 0.0 -0.2 -0.1 -0.5 -0.4 -0.2
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