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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

Charts

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Latest Numbers

RSS
Seasonally Adjusted

Unemployment Rate: 3.7% in Nov 2023 Historical Data

Change in Unemployment Level: -215,000 in Nov 2023 Historical Data

Change in Employment Level: +747,000 in Nov 2023 Historical Data

Change in Civilian Labor Force Level: +532,000 in Nov 2023 Historical Data

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

Employment-Population Ratio: 60.5% in Nov 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 199,000 in November; unemployment rate edges down to 3.7%

12/08/2023

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 199,000 in November, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.7 percent. Job gains occurred in health care and government. Employment also increased in manufacturing, reflecting the return of workers from a strike. Employment in retail trade...
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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 December 2023 is scheduled to be released on January 5, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Publications

The Economics Daily

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New monthly and quarterly labor force data for detailed Asian groups

With the publication of The Employment Situation news release on September 1, 2023, monthly and quarterly data for Asian groups, including Asian Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Other Asians, were made available in the BLS database, with data going back to January 2013. read more »

BLS Reports

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Characteristics of minimum wage workers, 2022

This report presents highlights and statistical tables describing workers who earned at or below the federal minimum wage in 2022. The data are obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a national monthly survey of approximately 60,000 eligible households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). read more »

Spotlight on Statistics

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Union Membership, Activity, and Compensation in 2022

In 2022, 10.1 percent of workers in the United States belonged to a union. This Spotlight on Statistics focuses on union membership, strike activity, and compensation in 2022. read more »

Monthly Labor Review

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Unemployment rate returned to its prepandemic level in 2022

The U.S labor market continued to recover from the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. read more »