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 rose in June to 4.9% from 4.7% in May. The Labor Force Participation rate rose to 62.7% from 62.6%. The Employment/Population Ratio fell to 59.6% from 59.7%. 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)
June 2015 June 2016 June 2015 Apr. 2016 May 2016 June 2016 Apr. 2016 May 2016 June 2016 Apr. 2016 May 2016 June 2016
All Ages (16+) 157.0 158.9 5.3 5.0 4.7 4.9 0.0 -0.3 0.2 -0.4 -0.8 -0.4
16 to 19 years 5.7 5.8 17.9 16.0 16.0 16.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 -1.1 -1.8 -1.9
20 to 24 years 15.6 15.4 9.8 8.8 8.3 8.7 0.4 -0.5 0.4 -0.8 -1.8 -1.1
25 years and over 135.7 137.8 4.2 4.1 3.8 4.0 0.0 -0.3 0.2 -0.3 -0.6 -0.2
25 to 34 years 34.7 35.5 5.6 5.2 5.0 5.1 0.0 -0.2 0.1 -0.5 -0.8 -0.5
35 to 44 years 32.6 32.8 3.9 4.0 3.5 3.7 0.1 -0.5 0.2 -0.3 -0.9 -0.2
45 to 54 years 33.7 33.8 3.5 3.5 3.4 3.5 -0.1 -0.1 0.1 -0.3 -0.5 0.0
55 years and over 34.7 35.7 3.7 3.6 3.4 3.5 -0.3 -0.2 0.1 -0.3 -0.3 -0.2
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