Unemployment Rate unchanged in February at 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 remained unchanged in February (as reported today) at a rounded 4.1%. The Labor Force Participation rate rose to 63% from 62.7%. The Employment/Population Ratio rose to 60.4% from 60.1%. 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)
Feb. 2017 Feb. 2018 Feb. 2017 Dec. 2017 Jan. 2018 Feb. 2018 Dec. 2017 Jan. 2018 Feb. 2018 Dec. 2017 Jan. 2018 Feb. 2018
All Ages (16+) 160.0 161.9 4.7 4.1 4.1 4.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 -0.6 -0.7 -0.6
16 to 19 years 5.9 6.0 14.9 13.6 13.9 14.4 -2.3 0.3 0.5 -0.8 -1.1 -0.5
20 to 24 years 15.4 15.3 7.9 7.1 7.4 6.8 0.0 0.3 -0.6 -0.9 -0.8 -1.1
25 years and over 138.7 140.6 3.9 3.4 3.4 3.4 0.1 0.0 0.0 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5
25 to 34 years 36.0 36.6 4.8 4.5 4.3 4.4 0.2 -0.2 0.1 -0.2 -0.6 -0.4
35 to 44 years 33.0 33.5 4.1 3.0 3.1 3.1 -0.1 0.1 0.0 -1.0 -0.8 -1.0
45 to 54 years 33.6 33.6 3.3 2.7 3.0 2.9 0.0 0.3 -0.1 -0.7 -0.3 -0.4
55 years and over 36.2 36.9 3.4 3.3 3.0 3.2 0.2 -0.3 0.2 -0.2 -0.5 -0.2
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