Unemployment Rate rose in January to 3.6%.

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 January to 3.6% from 3.5% in December. The Labor Force Participation rate rose to 63.4% from 63.2%. The Employment/Population Ratio rose to 61.2% from 61%. 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)
Jan. 2019 Jan. 2020 Jan. 2019 Nov. 2019 Dec. 2019 Jan. 2020 Nov. 2019 Dec. 2019 Jan. 2020 Nov. 2019 Dec. 2019 Jan. 2020
All Ages (16+) 163.1 164.6 4.0 3.5 3.5 3.6 -0.1 0.0 0.1 -0.2 -0.4 -0.4
16 to 19 years 5.9 6.0 12.9 12.0 12.6 12.2 -0.3 0.6 -0.4 -0.4 0.0 -0.7
20 to 24 years 15.1 15.2 7.5 6.4 6.3 6.6 0.2 -0.1 0.3 -0.2 -0.9 -0.9
25 years and over 142.1 143.4 3.2 2.9 2.8 2.9 0.0 -0.1 0.1 -0.2 -0.3 -0.3
25 to 34 years 37.1 37.5 3.9 3.6 3.6 3.7 -0.1 0.0 0.1 -0.1 -0.3 -0.2
35 to 44 years 33.9 34.4 2.9 2.7 2.8 2.8 0.1 0.1 0.0 -0.2 0.0 -0.1
45 to 54 years 33.2 32.8 2.9 2.6 2.6 2.5 0.0 0.0 -0.1 -0.1 -0.3 -0.4
55 years and over 38.0 38.7 3.2 2.6 2.4 2.6 0.0 -0.2 0.2 -0.2 -0.5 -0.6
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