Labor Market

Headline unemployment rate, percentage of the labor force without jobs.

Broadest unemployment measure including discouraged and part-time workers.

Weekly first-time unemployment insurance claims, the highest-frequency labor indicator.

Smoothed jobless claims average, removes weekly volatility.

Ongoing unemployment insurance claims, measures difficulty of finding new work.

Total nonfarm employment, the single most-watched monthly jobs number.

Job openings from the JOLTS survey, measures labor demand.

Voluntary quit rate, high quits = worker confidence, low = fear.

Average weekly hours worked in the private sector, a leading employment indicator.

Average hourly earnings for all private employees, wage growth tracker.

Labor force participation rate, share of working-age population in the labor force.

Share of working-age population that is employed, avoids LFPR distortions.

Job openings as a share of total employment plus openings, a leading wage-pressure gauge.

Monthly hires as a percent of employment, captures labor-market churn.

Total monthly hires across the US economy, the absolute level companion to the hires rate.

Involuntary separations as a percent of employment, rises sharply ahead of recessions.

Monthly count of layoffs and discharges across the US economy.

Monthly count of voluntary quits, the level companion to the better-known quits rate.

Total separations rate combining quits, layoffs, and other exits.

Total separations level combining quits, layoffs, and other outflows.

Short-duration unemployment cohort, signals early-cycle labor churn.

Medium-duration unemployment, bridging fresh layoffs and long-term joblessness.

Long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more), a classic late-cycle scarring indicator.

Workers who want a job but have stopped actively searching, counted inside U5 and U6.

Involuntary part-time workers, a core U6 component that spikes in downturns.

Nonfarm business productivity growth (output per hour), sets the non-inflationary wage ceiling.

Average hourly earnings of private production and non-supervisory workers, the wage series the Fed highlights.

Unemployment rate for white workers, baseline reference for demographic comparisons.

Unemployment rate for Black or African American workers, historically roughly twice the white rate.

Unemployment rate for Hispanic or Latino workers, sensitive to construction and hospitality cycles.

Unemployment rate for Asian workers, typically lowest of the major tracked cohorts.

Median 12-month percent change in hourly wages for workers who appeared in CPS twelve months apart; 3-month moving average. Atlanta Fed's marquee wage-inflation gauge.

Median wage growth for workers who stayed with the same employer over the 12-month window.

Median wage growth for workers who changed employers in the 12-month window; the switcher premium (switcher − stayer) is a tight labor-market tell.

Median wage growth for prime-age workers (25-54); filters out retiree re-entry and youth compositional effects.