Unemployment Rate rose in August to 4.4%.

Posted - Filed under Data News, Household Survey.

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U3 unemployment rate

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The BLS U.3 unemployment rate rose in August to 4.4% from 4.3% in July. The Labor Force Participation rate remained unchanged August at 62.9%. The Employment/Population Ratio fell to 60.1% 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)
Aug. 2016 Aug. 2017 Aug. 2016 June 2017 July 2017 Aug. 2017 June 2017 July 2017 Aug. 2017 June 2017 July 2017 Aug. 2017
All Ages (16+) 159.5 160.6 4.9 4.4 4.3 4.4 0.1 -0.1 0.1 -0.5 -0.6 -0.5
16 to 19 years 6.0 5.9 15.6 13.3 13.2 13.6 -1.0 -0.1 0.4 -2.6 -2.4 -2.0
20 to 24 years 15.4 15.3 8.1 7.5 7.4 7.1 0.8 -0.1 -0.3 -1.1 -1.5 -1.0
25 years and over 138.2 139.4 4.1 3.7 3.6 3.8 0.1 -0.1 0.2 -0.3 -0.4 -0.3
25 to 34 years 35.8 36.1 5.2 4.4 4.6 4.9 -0.5 0.2 0.3 -0.7 -0.4 -0.3
35 to 44 years 32.7 33.0 4.1 3.4 3.6 3.4 0.1 0.2 -0.2 -0.4 0.1 -0.7
45 to 54 years 33.8 33.6 3.6 3.6 3.2 3.6 0.4 -0.4 0.4 0.1 -0.3 0.0
55 years and over 35.8 36.7 3.5 3.2 3.2 3.2 0.1 0.0 0.0 -0.4 -0.5 -0.3
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