The Federal Reserve Labor Market Conditions Index measures the strength of US job market. The index is derived from 19 labor market indicators, with unemployment rate and private payrolls being the most important. It also includes: the labor-force participation rate, data on wages, hiring and dismissals. A reading above 0.0 indicates improving labor market activity, below indicates deteriorating activity. As of August 3, 2017, updates of the labor market conditions index have been discontinued as the Fed considers it no longer provides a good summary of changes in US labor market conditions. Specifically, model estimates turned out to be more sensitive to the detrending procedure than expected, the measurement of some indicators in recent years has changed in ways that significantly degraded their signal content, and including average hourly earnings as an indicator did not provide a meaningful link between labor market conditions and wage growth.
|
Actual |
Previous |
Highest |
Lowest |
Dates |
Unit |
Frequency |
|
|
1.50 |
3.30 |
32.00 |
-48.40 |
1976 - 2017 |
points |
Monthly |
SA
|