Unemployment rate refers to the percentage of the workforce that is jobless yet available for work and actively seeking employment. It is a lagging economic indicator that rises and falls with changes in the business cycle. When businesses are hiring, people are more likely to be looking for jobs and to find them. However, as the economy begins to slow down and companies are less likely to hire, people who want jobs can be more easily discouraged and give up searching for a job, thus dropping out of the labor force. This causes the unemployment rate to fall.

The most well known measure of unemployment is the U-3 rate, which is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics each month as part of the Employment Situation news release. This figure is based on the data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The survey asks participants whether they are currently working, employed or looking for work. People who have a job are classified as “employed,” those who don’t have a job but are actively searching for one are categorized as “unemployed” and those who are not in the labor force at all because they either are going to school or have family responsibilities are considered “not in the labor force.”

There are several other measures of unemployment that are based on the CPS, including the U-6 unemployment rate. These figures are more comprehensive and take into account people who have dropped out of the labor force, those who have given up looking for work and those who have not reported rtp live hari ini any job search activity at all in the past four weeks.