United States Unemployment Rate

The US unemployment rate came in at 3.8 percent in March 2019, unchanged from the previous month's figure and in line with market expectations. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 24 thousand to 6.2 million while employment dropped by 201 thousand to 156.7 million. The participation rate fell to 63 percent in March from 63.2 in February. Unemployment Rate in the United States averaged 5.76 percent from 1948 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 10.80 percent in November of 1982 and a record low of 2.50 percent in May of 1953.

Unemployment Rate in the United States is expected to be 3.80 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Unemployment Rate in the United States to stand at 4.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the United States Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around 3.90 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.

1Y 5Y 10Y MAX

width

height

Trading Economics members can view, download and compare data from nearly 200 countries, including more than 20 million economic indicators, exchange rates, government bond yields, stock indexes and commodity prices.

Learn More Questions? Contact us Already a Member? Login

The Trading Economics Application Programming Interface (API) provides direct access to our data. It allows API clients to download millions of rows of historical data, to query our real-time economic calendar, subscribe to updates and receive quotes for currencies, commodities, stocks and bonds.

API Features Documentation Interested? Click here to contact us

Calendar	GMT		Actual	Previous	Consensus	TEForecast
2019-01-04	01:30 PM	Unemployment Rate	3.9%	3.7%	3.7%	3.97%
2019-02-01	01:30 PM	Unemployment Rate	4%	3.9%	3.9%	3.9%
2019-03-08	01:30 PM	Unemployment Rate	3.8%	4%	3.9%	3.9%
2019-04-05	12:30 PM	Unemployment Rate	3.8%	3.8%	3.8%	3.80%
2019-05-03	12:30 PM	Unemployment Rate		3.8%		3.8%
2019-06-07	12:30 PM	Unemployment Rate				3.9%
2019-07-05	12:30 PM	Unemployment Rate				3.80%

US Jobless Rate Holds Steady at 3.8%

The US unemployment rate came in at 3.8 percent in March 2019, unchanged from the previous month's figure and in line with market expectations. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 24 thousand to 6.2 million while employment dropped by 201 thousand to 156.7 million.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.6 percent), adult women (3.3 percent), teenagers (12.8 percent), Whites (3.4 percent), Blacks (6.7 percent), Asians (3.1 percent), and Hispanics (4.7 percent) showed little or no change in March.

In March, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 1.3 million and accounted for 21.1 percent of the unemployed.

The labor force participation rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 63.0 percent and has shown little movement on net over the past 12 months. The employment-population ratio edged down 0.1 percentage points to 60.6 percent in March and has been either 60.6 percent or 60.7 percent since October 2018.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed at 4.5 million in March. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.

There were 1.4 million persons marginally attached to the labor force, little different from a year earlier. (Data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there were 412,000 discouraged workers in March, about unchanged from a year earlier. (Data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 944,000 persons marginally attached to the labor force in March had not searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

BLS | Joana Ferreira | joana.ferreira@tradingeconomics.com
4/5/2019 12:42:59 PM

News

US Jobless Rate Falls More than Expected
The US unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent in February 2019 from 4 percent in the previous month and below market expectations of 3.9 percent. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 300,000 to 6.2 million.
Published on 2019-03-08

US Jobless Rate Unexpectedly Rises to 4%
The US unemployment rate rose to 4 percent in January 2019 from 3.9 percent in the previous month and slightly above market expectations of 3.9 percent. The number of unemployed increased by 241 thousand to 6.54 million while employment fell by 251 thousand to 156.69 million, following the 35-day partial government shutdown.
Published on 2019-02-01

US Jobless Rate Rises to 3.9% in December
The US unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent in December 2018 from a 49-year low of 3.7 percent in the previous month, and above market expectations of 3.7 percent. It was the highest jobless rate since July, as the number of unemployed persons increased by 276 thousand to 6.3 million and employment advanced by 142 thousand to 156.9 million.
Published on 2019-01-04

US Jobless Rate Unchanged at 49-Year Low
The US unemployment rate was unchanged at a 49-year low of 3.7 percent in November 2018, in line with market expectations. The number of unemployed decreased by 100 thousand to 5.98 million and employment rose by 233 thousand to 156.80 million.
Published on 2018-12-07

United States Labour	Last	Previous	Highest	Lowest	Unit
Unemployment Rate	3.80	3.80	10.80	2.50	percent	[+]
Non Farm Payrolls	196.00	33.00	1118.00	-1959.00	Thousand	[+]
Nonfarm Payrolls Private	182.00	28.00	1092.00	-811.00	Thousand	[+]
Government Payrolls	14.00	5.00	427.00	-260.00	Thousand	[+]
Manufacturing Payrolls	-6.00	1.00	572.00	-519.00	Thousand	[+]
Initial Jobless Claims	202.00	212.00	695.00	162.00	Thousand	[+]
Continuing Jobless Claims	1717.00	1755.00	6635.00	988.00	Thousand	[+]
ADP Employment Change	129.00	197.00	360.00	-706.00	Thousand	[+]
Employed Persons	156748.00	156949.00	156949.00	57635.00	Thousand	[+]
Unemployed Persons	6211.00	6235.00	15352.00	1596.00	Thousand	[+]
Average Hourly Earnings	0.10	0.40	0.60	-0.20	percent	[+]
Average Weekly Hours	34.50	34.40	34.60	33.70	Hours	[+]
Labor Force Participation Rate	63.00	63.20	67.30	58.10	percent	[+]
Long Term Unemployment Rate	0.80	0.78	4.40	0.08	percent	[+]
Youth Unemployment Rate	8.90	9.10	19.50	7.80	percent	[+]
Labour Costs	109.78	109.25	109.78	17.00	Index Points	[+]
Productivity	106.10	105.61	106.10	26.03	Index Points	[+]
Job Vacancies	7484.00	6890.00	7484.00	2132.00	Thousand	[+]
Job Offers	7581.00	7479.00	7626.00	2264.00	Thousand	[+]
Challenger Job Cuts	60587.00	76835.00	248475.00	15100.00	Persons	[+]
Wages	23.24	23.18	23.24	2.50	USD/Hour	[+]
Wage Growth	4.20	4.24	13.78	-5.88	percent	[+]
Wages in Manufacturing	21.93	21.89	21.94	1.27	USD/Hour	[+]
Minimum Wages	7.25	7.25	7.25	0.25	USD/Hour	[+]
Employment Cost Index	0.70	0.80	1.60	0.20	percent	[+]
Population	325.72	323.41	325.72	76.09	Million	[+]
Retirement Age Women	66.00	66.00	66.00	66.00		[+]
Retirement Age Men	66.00	66.00	66.00	66.00		[+]
Employment Rate	60.60	60.70	64.70	55.00	percent	[+]
Full Time Employment	129969.00	130159.00	130159.00	64640.00	Thousand	[+]
Part Time Employment	26938.00	26878.00	28134.00	10086.00	Thousand	[+]
Living Wage Family	2380.00	2270.00	2380.00	2160.00	USD/Month	[+]
Living Wage Individual	1660.00	1560.00	1660.00	1450.00	USD/Month	[+]
Wages High Skilled	4520.00	4330.00	4950.00	4330.00	USD/Month	[+]
Wages Low Skilled	1960.00	1760.00	2340.00	1760.00	USD/Month	[+]

In the United States, the unemployment rate measures the number of people actively looking for a job as a percentage of the labour force. This page provides the latest reported value for - United States Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news. United States Unemployment Rate - actual data, historical chart and calendar of releases - was last updated on April of 2019.

	Actual	Previous	Highest	Lowest	Dates	Unit	Frequency
	3.80	3.80	10.80	2.50	1948 - 2019	percent	Monthly

Export Data API

Country	Last		Previous	Range
South Africa	27.10	Dec/18	27.5	31.2 : 21.5	%
Spain	14.45	Dec/18	14.55	26.94 : 4.41	%
Turkey	13.50	Dec/18	12.3	14.8 : 7.3	%
Brazil	12.40	Feb/19	12	13.7 : 6.2	%
Italy	10.70	Feb/19	10.5	13.1 : 5.8	%
Argentina	9.10	Dec/18	9	20.8 : 5.9	%
France	8.80	Dec/18	9.1	10.7 : 7.2	%
Euro Area	7.80	Feb/19	7.8	12.1 : 7.3	%
Saudi Arabia	6.00	Dec/18	6	6.3 : 4.35	%
Canada	5.80	Mar/19	5.8	13.1 : 2.9	%
Indonesia	5.34	Sep/18	5.13	11.24 : 2	%
Australia	4.90	Feb/19	5	11.2 : 4	%
Russia	4.90	Feb/19	4.9	14.1 : 4.5	%
United Kingdom	3.90	Jan/19	4	12 : 3.4	%
China	3.80	Dec/18	3.82	4.3 : 3.8	%
United States	3.80	Mar/19	3.8	10.8 : 2.5	%
South Korea	3.70	Feb/19	4.4	7.1 : 3	%
India	3.53	Dec/18	3.52	8.3 : 3.41	%
Netherlands	3.40	Feb/19	3.6	7.9 : 3.4	%
Mexico	3.30	Feb/19	3.6	6.42 : 2.22	%
Germany	3.10	Feb/19	3.2	11.5 : 0.4	%
Switzerland	2.50	Mar/19	2.7	5.7 : 1.5	%
Japan	2.30	Feb/19	2.5	5.5 : 1	%
Singapore	2.20	Dec/18	2.1	6 : 1.4	%