Skip to Content
Opening Bell
Back to Glossary

Unemployment Rate

Macro & the Fed

The unemployment rate is the share of the labor force that has no job, is available to work and has actively looked for work in the past four weeks.

In the US it comes from the household survey in the BLS monthly jobs report. Someone who stops looking leaves the labor force, which can push the rate down, so it should be read alongside the labor force participation rate. Because maximum employment is one of the Fed's two mandates, this rate feeds directly into rate expectations.

Related Terms

4 Links

More in the Guide

The Jobs Data: Payrolls, Unemployment and JOLTSThe single number released on the first Friday of the month is the report card for one of the Fed's two mandates — and sometimes good news is bad news.