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Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey

The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body of data on the labor forceemploymentunemployment, persons not in the labor forcehours of workearnings, and other demographic and labor force characteristics.

Notices

  • Discontinuation of the Commissioner’s Statement (CPS) Read More »
  • Changes to 2023 CPS public-use microdata files Read More »
  • Supplemental data measuring the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the labor market Read More »

Charts

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Latest Numbers

RSS
Seasonally Adjusted

Unemployment Rate: 3.8% in Aug 2023 Historical Data

Change in Unemployment Level: +514,000 in Aug 2023 Historical Data

Change in Employment Level: +222,000 in Aug 2023 Historical Data

Change in Civilian Labor Force Level: +736,000 in Aug 2023 Historical Data

Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate: 62.8% in Aug 2023 Historical Data

Employment-Population Ratio: 60.4% in Aug 2023 Historical Data

Annual Averages

Unemployment Rate: 3.6% for 2022 Historical Data

Unemployment Level: 5,996,000 for 2022 Historical Data

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News Releases

Payroll employment increases by 187,000 in August; unemployment rate rises to 3.8%

09/01/2023

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 187,000 in August, and the unemployment rate rose to 3.8 percent. Employment continued to trend up in health care, leisure and hospitality, social assistance, and construction. Employment in transportation and warehousing declined.
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Union membership rate 10.1% in 2022, down from 10.3% in 2021

01/19/2023

The union membership rate was 10.1 percent in 2022, down from 10.3 percent the prior year. In 2022, the number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions increased by 273,000 to 14.3 million.
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Next Release

The Employment Situation for September 2023 is scheduled to be released on October 6, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Publications

The Economics Daily

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Labor force participation rate for people ages 25 to 54 in May 2023 highest since January 2007

The labor force participation rate for people age 16 and older was 62.6 percent in May 2023. That was 0.7 percentage point below its February 2020 level, before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The labor force participation rate for people ages 25 to 54 has returned to its pre-pandemic level. The rate was 83.4 percent in May 2023. The last time it was this high was January 2007. read more »

Spotlight on Statistics

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Healthcare Occupations: Characteristics of the Employed

The healthcare field has some of the fastest growing occupations in the United States. But what are the demographic characteristics of workers in healthcare occupations? Which healthcare occupations have the greatest share of self-employed workers, or the largest share of workers in the public sector? How about the average hours of work per week for people in a particular healthcare occupation? read more »

BLS Reports

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Highlights of women's earnings in 2021

In 2021, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual weekly earnings that were 83 percent of those of male full-time wage and salary workers. In 1979, the first year for which comparable earnings data are available, women’s earnings were 62 percent of men’s earnings. read more »

Monthly Labor Review

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U.S. labor market shows improvement in 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic continues to weigh on the economy

The U.S. labor market continued to recover in 2021 from the recession caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. The number of people who were unemployed and the unemployment rate decreased over the year, but both measures remained above their prepandemic levels. read more »