Unemployment Rate fell in October to 4.1%.

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 October to 4.1% from 4.2% in September. The Labor Force Participation rate fell to 62.7% from 63.1%. The Employment/Population Ratio fell to 60.2% from 60.4%. 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)
Oct. 2016 Oct. 2017 Oct. 2016 Aug. 2017 Sep. 2017 Oct. 2017 Aug. 2017 Sep. 2017 Oct. 2017 Aug. 2017 Sep. 2017 Oct. 2017
All Ages (16+) 159.6 160.4 4.8 4.4 4.2 4.1 0.1 -0.2 -0.1 -0.5 -0.7 -0.7
16 to 19 years 5.9 5.8 15.6 13.6 12.9 13.7 0.4 -0.7 0.8 -2.0 -3.0 -1.9
20 to 24 years 15.2 15.3 8.4 7.1 7.5 7.2 -0.3 0.4 -0.3 -1.0 -0.7 -1.2
25 years and over 138.7 139.3 4.0 3.8 3.5 3.3 0.2 -0.3 -0.2 -0.3 -0.6 -0.7
25 to 34 years 35.8 36.3 5.1 4.9 4.4 4.4 0.3 -0.5 0.0 -0.3 -0.7 -0.7
35 to 44 years 32.9 33.1 3.9 3.4 3.2 3.0 -0.2 -0.2 -0.2 -0.7 -0.9 -0.9
45 to 54 years 34.1 33.3 3.4 3.6 3.1 2.7 0.4 -0.5 -0.4 0.0 -0.5 -0.7
55 years and over 36.0 36.6 3.7 3.2 3.2 3.1 0.0 0.0 -0.1 -0.3 -0.4 -0.6
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