Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey

CPS Home

The Current Population Survey (CPS) provides a wealth of information on the nation’s labor force including data on the employed, unemployed, and those not in the labor force. Key CPS measures are the unemployment rate, labor force participation rate, and employment-population ratio.

Explore CPS topics to learn about people’s work and job search activity and various demographic characteristics.

Charts

read more »

Latest Numbers

RSS
Seasonally Adjusted

Unemployment Rate: 4.3% in May 2026 Historical Data

Change in Unemployment Level: -66,000 in May 2026 Historical Data

Change in Employment Level: +149,000 in May 2026 Historical Data

Change in Civilian Labor Force Level: +83,000 in May 2026 Historical Data

Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate: 61.8% in May 2026 Historical Data

Employment-Population Ratio: 59.2% in May 2026 Historical Data

Annual Averages

Unemployment Rate: 4.3% for 2025 Historical Data

Unemployment Level: 7,314,000 for 2025 Historical Data

read more »

Videos

Understanding BLS Unemployment Statistics

Learn how the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the unemployment rate.

view more »

News Releases

Payroll employment increases by 172,000 in May; unemployment rate unchanged at 4.3%

06/05/2026

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 172,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3 percent. Job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, local government, and health care. Employment in financial activities declined.
HTML | PDF | RSS | Charts

Full-time wage and salary workers median weekly earnings are $1,235 in 1st quarter 2026

04/16/2026

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 121.0 million full-time wage and salary workers were $1,235 in the first quarter of 2026 (not seasonally adjusted). This was 3.4 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 2.7 percent in the CPI-U.
HTML | PDF | RSS | Charts

read more »

Next Release

The Employment Situation for June 2026 is scheduled to be released on July 2, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

See the CPS release calendar for a schedule of news releases on other topics.

Publications

Beyond the Numbers

Beyond the Numbers article image

Golden years: older Americans at work and play

This Beyond the Numbers article uses data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) to provide insights into the labor force participation and activities of older individuals. read more »

Monthly Labor Review

Monthly Labor Review article image

Exploring the complexities of nonstandard employment: the 2022–23 California Work and Health Survey

This article discusses the California Work and Health Survey (CWHS), a longitudinal survey developed by the California Labor Laboratory and conducted between November 2022 and May 2023 read more »

The Economics Daily

The Economics Daily article image

Among married-couple families with children, 97.4 percent had at least one employed parent in 2025

In 2025, 32.9 million families, or nearly two-fifths of all families, included children under age 18. At least one parent was employed in 91.6 percent of these families with children, little changed from the prior year. read more »

Spotlight on Statistics

Spotlight on Statistics article image

Unemployment Duration in the Pandemic: A Look at Jobseeker Demographics

During the pandemic, median unemployment duration was highest in 2021, with a duration of 16.5 weeks nationwide. However, unemployment duration varied by state, with durations ranging from 4.9 weeks (South Dakota) to 30.1 weeks (Nevada) in 2021. In 2023, when the national median unemployment duration was 8.9 weeks, state figures ranged from 4.3 weeks (Nebraska and South Dakota) to 17.5 weeks (the District of Columbia). read more »