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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Local Area Unemployment Statistics > Publications > Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization for States

Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization for States

Six alternative measures of labor underutilization have long been available on a monthly basis from the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the United States as a whole. They are published in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly Employment Situation news release. (See table 15.) The official concept of unemployment (as measured in the CPS by U-3 in the U-1 to U-6 range of alternatives) includes all jobless persons who are available to take a job and have actively sought work in the past four weeks. This concept has been thoroughly reviewed and validated since the inception of the CPS in 1940. The other measures are provided to data users and analysts who want more narrowly (U-1 and U-2) or broadly (U-4 through U-6) defined measures.

BLS is committed to updating the alternative measures data for states on a 4-quarter moving-average basis. The use of 4-quarter averages increases the reliability of the CPS estimates, which are based on relatively small sample sizes at the state level, and eliminates seasonality. Due to the inclusion of lagged quarters, the state alternative measures may not fully reflect the current status of the labor market. The analysis that follows pertains to the 2025 11-month* averages. (*NOTE: Annual estimates for 2025 are 11-month averages that exclude October. Data for October 2025 were not collected due to the federal government shutdown. As a result, these estimates are not strictly comparable with averages for other time periods. Due to the lack of strict comparability and the inability to adapt standard error measures for statistical significance testing, no analysis of these data is included below.) Data are also available for prior time periods back to 2003.

The six state measures are based on the same definitions as those published for the United States:

U-1, persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force;
U-2, job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force;
U-3, total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (this is the definition used for the official unemployment rate);
U-4, total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers;
U-5, total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other marginally attached workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers; and
U-6, total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.

Definitions for the economic characteristics underlying the three broader measures of labor underutilization are worth mentioning here. Discouraged workers (U-4, U-5, and U-6 measures) are persons who are not in the labor force, want and are available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They are not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the prior 4 weeks, for the specific reason that they believed no jobs were available for them. The marginally attached (U-5 and U-6 measures) are a group that includes discouraged workers. The criteria for the marginally attached are the same as for discouraged workers, with the exception that any reason could have been cited for the lack of job search in the prior 4 weeks. Persons employed part time for economic reasons (U-6 measure) are those working less than 35 hours per week who want to work full time, are available to do so, and gave an economic reason (their hours had been cut back or they were unable to find a full-time job) for working part time. These individuals are sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers.

Generally, all six measures of labor underutilization move together over time, including across business cycles. Similarly, states that have low unemployment rates tend to have low values for the other five measures; the reverse is true for states with high unemployment rates. Note that, in the table and in the comparisons below, the unemployment rates (U-3) that are shown are derived directly from the CPS, because this is the only source of data for the various components of the other five measures. As a result, these U-3 measures may differ from the official state unemployment rates for the same period. The official rates are developed from statistical models that greatly improve the reliability of the topside labor force and unemployment estimates. Those models, developed by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program, incorporate CPS estimates, as well as input data from other sources. The model-based estimates are accessible through the LAUS program homepage. The model-based 11-month averages for 2025 will be released in April 2026.

For additional information on state estimates derived directly from the CPS, see notes on subnational CPS data.

Alternative measures of labor underutilization by state, 2025 11-month* averages (percent)
Area	Measure
Area	U-1	U-2	U-3	U-4	U-5	U-6
State
Total, all states	1.6	2.0	4.3	4.6	5.2	8.0
Alabama	0.9	1.1	2.7	3.0	3.5	5.3
Alaska	1.6	2.5	5.1	5.5	6.4	9.0
Arizona	1.4	1.9	4.3	4.6	5.4	8.5
Arkansas	1.3	2.0	4.5	4.8	5.5	7.9
California	2.4	2.6	5.3	5.6	6.3	10.2
Colorado	1.5	1.9	4.0	4.2	4.8	8.1
Connecticut	2.0	2.2	4.5	4.7	5.4	8.2
Delaware	1.8	2.5	5.5	5.7	6.4	9.0
District of Columbia	2.8	3.4	6.0	6.2	7.0	10.0
Florida	1.6	1.5	3.8	4.3	5.0	7.9
Georgia	1.4	1.4	3.3	3.5	4.3	6.5
Hawaii	0.7	1.2	2.5	2.7	3.7	5.7
Idaho	1.0	1.5	3.5	3.7	4.2	6.5
Illinois	2.1	2.0	4.6	5.0	5.7	8.6
Indiana	1.0	1.6	3.5	3.7	4.5	7.1
Iowa	1.3	2.0	4.0	4.1	4.5	7.1
Kansas	1.2	1.7	3.6	3.7	4.2	6.7
Kentucky	1.5	1.8	4.6	4.9	5.7	8.3
Louisiana	1.7	2.0	4.3	4.6	5.1	7.6
Maine	0.9	1.8	3.2	3.4	4.4	7.5
Maryland	1.5	1.8	4.4	4.7	5.6	8.0
Massachusetts	1.9	2.5	4.5	4.8	5.3	7.6
Michigan	1.7	2.4	5.2	5.5	6.3	9.2
Minnesota	1.2	2.4	4.3	4.4	5.2	7.9
Mississippi	1.6	2.0	3.9	4.4	4.9	7.1
Missouri	0.9	1.8	3.8	4.0	4.5	6.4
Montana	0.7	1.5	3.3	3.5	4.1	6.8
Nebraska	1.0	1.3	3.2	3.4	4.0	6.3
Nevada	1.9	2.3	4.8	5.1	5.6	9.8
New Hampshire	1.2	1.9	3.2	3.4	4.0	5.9
New Jersey	1.9	2.3	4.9	5.2	5.9	8.7
New Mexico	1.6	1.8	4.2	4.5	5.3	8.4
New York	2.1	2.0	4.2	4.6	5.4	8.0
North Carolina	1.3	1.8	3.5	3.8	4.4	6.4
North Dakota	0.6	1.3	2.8	2.9	3.3	5.5
Ohio	1.6	2.4	4.8	5.0	5.7	8.1
Oklahoma	1.3	2.0	3.8	4.0	4.7	7.2
Oregon	2.2	2.9	5.4	5.7	6.5	9.6
Pennsylvania	1.6	2.3	4.3	4.6	5.3	7.4
Rhode Island	2.0	2.9	4.8	5.0	5.7	8.6
South Carolina	1.3	1.7	4.2	4.4	5.2	7.5
South Dakota	0.7	1.1	2.5	2.7	3.0	5.0
Tennessee	1.1	1.4	3.6	3.9	4.6	6.8
Texas	1.5	1.8	4.1	4.4	4.9	8.0
Utah	1.1	1.7	3.7	3.9	4.3	7.0
Vermont	0.7	1.4	2.8	2.9	3.5	5.8
Virginia	1.8	1.9	4.3	4.6	5.3	8.2
Washington	2.0	2.3	5.0	5.2	5.8	9.2
West Virginia	1.7	1.5	3.9	4.1	4.7	7.1
Wisconsin	1.2	2.1	3.4	3.5	4.1	6.5
Wyoming	0.9	1.8	3.4	3.5	3.9	6.4
Selected substate area
Los Angeles County	2.5	2.9	5.6	5.9	6.6	11.6
New York City	2.8	2.5	5.0	5.5	6.4	9.4
* Annual estimates for 2025 are 11-month averages that exclude October. Data for October 2025 were not collected due to the federal government shutdown. As a result, these estimates are not strictly comparable with averages for other time periods.

The next issuance of the alternative measures of labor underutilization for states, covering the 12 months ending in March 2026 (excluding October 2025), will be scheduled for May.

Last Modified Date: January 30, 2026