Jobs & Layoffs · Tracker
US unemployment rate, month by month
The unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey, with the broader U-6 rate, the number of people unemployed and the share of adults in the labor force.
Last verified · refreshed monthly
The unemployment rate is the share of the labor force that is out of work and has looked for work in the past four weeks. It comes from the household survey the Bureau of Labor Statistics runs every month, and it is published in the Employment Situation release at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on a Friday morning, usually the first one of the month.
In August 2026 the rate was 4.1 percent, unchanged from July, with 7.0 million people unemployed. Payrolls rose by 162,000 that month. This table carries the past year of figures with three numbers the headline rate leaves out: U-6, which counts people working part time because they cannot find full-time work and people who have given up looking; the count of unemployed people, which moves even when the rate does not; and the labor force participation rate, which is the reason a falling unemployment rate is not always good news.
The figures come from a survey of about 60,000 households, not from a count of everyone out of work, and not from unemployment claims. Someone counts as unemployed only if they had no job in the survey week, were available for work, and had actively looked for work at some point in the four weeks before it. That last condition is the one that surprises people: a person who wants a job but has stopped applying is not unemployed by this measure, and is not in the labor force at all. It is also why the rate and the participation rate have to be read together.
The rate is revised. Seasonal adjustment factors are recalculated every year, which moves the published figure for months already reported, and this table follows the current series rather than the number that ran in the headlines at the time. Where the two differ, the difference is noted below the table.
There is no October 2025 row because there is no October 2025 figure. The household survey was not collected that month during the lapse in federal appropriations that ran from October 1 to November 12, 2025, and BLS published no Employment Situation release for it. If you have just been laid off, the first 30 days checklist and how to file for unemployment are the practical pages; this one is the context.
Swipe sideways to see every column.
| Month | Unemployment rate (%) | Unemployed (millions) | U-6 rate (%) | Participation rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2026 | 4.1 | 7.03 | 7.7 | 61.6 |
| July 2026 | 4.1 | 6.92 | 7.9 | 61.4 |
| June 2026 | 4.2 | 7.09 | 7.9 | 61.5 |
| May 2026 | 4.3 | 7.31 | 8.1 | 61.8 |
| April 2026 | 4.3 | 7.37 | 8.2 | 61.8 |
| March 2026 | 4.3 | 7.24 | 8 | 61.9 |
| February 2026 | 4.4 | 7.57 | 7.9 | 62 |
| January 2026 | 4.3 | 7.37 | 8.1 | 62.1 |
| December 2025 | 4.4 | 7.5 | 8.4 | 62.4 |
| November 2025 | 4.5 | 7.78 | 8.7 | 62.5 |
| October 2025 | — | — | — | — |
| September 2025 | 4.4 | 7.61 | 8.1 | 62.5 |
| August 2025 | 4.3 | 7.38 | 8.1 | 62.3 |
What to do
- Read the release itself on the morning it lands. The headline rate is one line of it, and the table on unemployed people by duration is usually the more informative one. Official link
- Do not compare this national rate with a state rate from a different month. State figures are published separately and land later.
- If you were laid off, the national rate has no bearing on your claim. What your state pays, and for how many weeks, is the figure that matters. Official link
- For layoffs as they are filed rather than as they are counted, the layoffs tracker reads the SEC filings. Official link
Questions readers ask
- Who counts as unemployed?
- Someone who had no job in the survey week, was available for work, and had actively looked for work at some point in the four weeks before the survey. Looking means something concrete, such as sending an application or contacting an employer. A person who wants a job but has not looked in those four weeks is not counted as unemployed, and is not counted in the labor force either.
- What is U-6 and why is it higher?
- U-6 is the broadest of the six measures BLS publishes. On top of the unemployed it counts people working part time because their hours were cut or they could not find full-time work, and people who want a job and have looked in the past year but not in the past four weeks. In August 2026 it was 7.7 percent against a headline rate of 4.1 percent.
- Why is there no figure for October 2025?
- BLS did not collect the household survey for October 2025 during the lapse in federal appropriations that ran from October 1 to November 12, 2025, and published no Employment Situation release for that month. Publication of the November 2025 figures was delayed by more than a week for the same reason.
- Why do older months in this table change?
- Seasonal adjustment factors are recalculated each year, which revises the seasonally adjusted rate for earlier months. The figure BLS reported for November 2025 on the day of release was 4.6 percent; the current series puts it at 4.5 percent. This table follows the current series, so it always matches what BLS publishes today rather than what the headlines said at the time.
- Does a falling unemployment rate always mean more people are working?
- No. The rate is a share of the labor force, and people who stop looking for work leave the labor force altogether. That is why the participation rate sits in this table: between January and August 2026 it fell by half a percentage point, so part of the movement in the rate is people leaving rather than people hired.
Dates ahead
- September jobs report and unemployment rate
- October jobs report and unemployment rate
- November jobs report and unemployment rate
Mentioned:U.S. Department of Labor
How we reported this
Built from the documents in the Source Card. Opened on September 7, 2026 with the 13 months through August 2026 from the BLS household survey.
Written by Mirza Seraj Baig · Checked against the documents in the source card (editorial standards).
Updates
- Opened on September 7, 2026 with the 13 months through August 2026 from the BLS household survey.