11.4 percent of unemployed were on temporary layoff in March 2025

Both the unemployment rate, at 4.2 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, changed little in March 2025. The unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 4.0 percent to 4.2 percent since May 2024. Job losers who were on temporary layoff accounted for 11.4 percent of the total unemployed in March 2025. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, job losers who were on temporary layoff accounted for 28.3 percent of the total unemployed and rose to 78.3 percent in April 2020.

In March 2025, the number of job losers not on temporary layoff, at 2.5 million, made up 35.3 percent of the total unemployed. Reentrants, those who previously worked but were out of the labor force before they began their job search, at 2.2 million, made up 30.7 percent of the total unemployed.

Job leavers accounted for 12.3 percent of the total unemployed in March. New entrants, those who are looking for their first job and have no previous work experience, made up 10.4 percent.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see “The Employment Situation — March 2025.” We also have more charts on employment and unemployment. People are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Those unemployed are categorized into one of four general reasons for unemployment: job losers, job leavers, reentrants, and new entrants. The job losers category consists of two subgroups: people on temporary layoff and not on temporary layoff. Job leavers include those who quit or voluntarily ended their jobs and immediately began searching for a new job.