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 September (as reported today) at a rounded 5.1%. The Labor Force Participation rate fell to 62.4% from 62.6%. The Employment/Population Ratio fell to 59.2% from 59.4%. 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)
Sep. 2014 Sep. 2015 Sep. 2014 July 2015 Aug. 2015 Sep. 2015 July 2015 Aug. 2015 Sep. 2015 July 2015 Aug. 2015 Sep. 2015
All Ages (16+) 155.8 156.7 5.9 5.3 5.1 5.1 0.0 -0.2 0.0 -0.9 -1.0 -0.8
16 to 19 years 5.6 5.6 19.8 16.2 16.9 16.3 -1.9 0.7 -0.6 -3.8 -2.5 -3.5
20 to 24 years 15.6 15.4 11.5 10.1 8.9 9.1 0.2 -1.2 0.2 -1.3 -1.8 -2.4
25 years and over 134.5 135.7 4.7 4.3 4.2 4.1 0.1 -0.1 -0.1 -0.7 -0.9 -0.6
25 to 34 years 34.2 34.6 6.2 5.5 5.3 5.1 -0.1 -0.2 -0.2 -1.0 -1.5 -1.1
35 to 44 years 32.4 32.7 4.4 4.1 3.9 4.0 0.2 -0.2 0.1 -0.7 -0.9 -0.4
45 to 54 years 33.9 33.7 4.1 3.8 3.9 3.4 0.3 0.1 -0.5 -0.4 -0.4 -0.7
55 years and over 34.0 34.7 3.9 3.7 3.8 3.9 0.0 0.1 0.1 -0.8 -0.7 0.0
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