Unemployment Rate unchanged in August at 3.9%.

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 remained unchanged in August (as reported today) at a rounded 3.9%. The Labor Force Participation rate fell to 62.7% from 62.9%. The Employment/Population Ratio fell to 60.3% from 60.5%. 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. 2017 Aug. 2018 Aug. 2017 June 2018 July 2018 Aug. 2018 June 2018 July 2018 Aug. 2018 June 2018 July 2018 Aug. 2018
All Ages (16+) 160.6 161.8 4.4 4.0 3.9 3.9 0.2 -0.1 0.0 -0.3 -0.4 -0.5
16 to 19 years 5.9 5.6 13.8 12.6 13.1 12.8 -0.2 0.5 -0.3 -0.7 -0.2 -1.0
20 to 24 years 15.3 14.9 7.2 7.4 6.9 6.8 0.3 -0.5 -0.1 -0.1 -0.5 -0.4
25 years and over 139.3 141.2 3.7 3.3 3.2 3.2 0.3 -0.1 0.0 -0.3 -0.4 -0.5
25 to 34 years 36.1 36.8 4.9 3.9 3.5 4.1 0.1 -0.4 0.6 -0.4 -1.0 -0.8
35 to 44 years 32.9 33.6 3.4 3.1 3.1 2.9 0.3 0.0 -0.2 -0.3 -0.5 -0.5
45 to 54 years 33.6 33.2 3.4 3.0 2.9 2.6 0.3 -0.1 -0.3 -0.5 -0.3 -0.8
55 years and over 36.7 37.6 3.2 3.1 3.1 3.1 0.3 0.0 0.0 -0.1 -0.1 -0.1
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