Current Unemployment Rate and Other Jobs Report Findings
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Updated on Feb. 13 with the latest jobless claims data from the Department of Labor.
The unemployment rate went down slightly at 4% in January — 0.1 percentage point decrease from December, according to the jobs report released on Feb. 7 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Job gains arrived below projections for January, with a total of 143,000. The consensus estimated monthly expectation was an increase of 170,000, according to Morningstar, an investing firm.
Job gains were primarily in health care; retail trade; and social assistance. Job losses were primarily in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry.
» MORE: How is the economy doing?
What are the weekly jobless claims?
Initial jobless claims went down by 7,000 for the week ending Feb. 8, according to the report released on Feb. 13.
The weekly jobless claims, or initial claims, are the number of unemployment insurance claims filed in the past week. They provide an indicator of the strength — or weakness — of the labor market.
Jobless claims decreased to 213,000 for the week ending Feb. 8. Last week’s revised level was 220,000.
The new four-week moving average — a measurement of the number of people who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time over the last four weeks — was 216,000, which is 1,000 lower than the previous week’s revised average of 217,000.
What's the insured unemployment rate?
Not all types of unemployment are included as part of the insured unemployment rate. It only includes "covered unemployment," as in people who receive unemployment benefits. Those who quit their jobs, for example, aren't included in the insured unemployment rate because they aren't eligible for unemployment benefits.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate — the rate of continuous covered unemployment claims divided by covered employment — was 1.2% for the week ending Feb. 1, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate.
How many jobs were added in January?
The economy added 143,000 (nonfarm) jobs in January, according to the BLS. The report says that January’s gains are in line with the average monthly gain of 166,000 in 2024.
307,000 in December 2024.
261,000 in November 2024
159,068 in October 2024
159,025 in September 2024
158,770 in August 2024
144,000 in July 2024
118,000 in June 2024
216,000 in May 2024
175,000 in April 2024
303,000 in March 2024
270,000 in February 2024
256,000 in January 2024
What is the current unemployment rate?
The current unemployment rate is 4% for January, a slight decrease from November. The rate is higher than unemployment rates during 2023, but matches the rate in January 2022.
Is unemployment rising or falling?
The unemployment rate went down by 0.1 percentage point between December and January. The unemployment rate has risen since March, when it was 3.8%. But, for the last eight months, the unemployment rate has stayed between 4.1% and 4.2%.
How to calculate the unemployment rate
The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed people by the number of people in the labor force. (The labor force is considered the sum of those who are currently working or looking for work.) The result is then multiplied by 100 to get a percentage:
Number of unemployed people / Labor force x 100 = X%, which is the unemployment rate
What is the labor force participation rate?
The labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 62.6% January compared to December after annual adjustments, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate has remained within the range of 62.5% and 62.7% since December 2023. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the population that is working or looking for work.
The rate is calculated as the labor force divided by the total population that’s eligible to work. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the total population that’s eligible to work as the “civilian noninstitutional population,” which refers to people ages 16 and older who are not in military service or incarcerated.) The result is multiplied by 100 to get a percentage:
Labor force / Civilian noninstitutional population x 100 = X%, which is the labor force participation rate
Since October 2002, the labor force participation rate was lowest in April 2020 (60.1%) and highest in June 2003 (66.5%), according to BLS data.
How is the job market right now?
In recent months, key labor market indicators — job openings, quit rate and layoffs — showed the tight labor market is loosening, but remains stable overall.
What does the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary report show?
The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS), released on Feb. 4, shows job openings were 7.6 million. The number of openings are down by 1.3 million compared to a year ago, according to the report.
8.2 million in November.
7.8 million in October
7.4 million in September
7.9 million in August 2024.
7.7 million in July 2024.
7.9 million in June 2024.
8.2 million in May 2024.
7.9 million in April 2024
8.4 million in March 2024.
8.8 million in February 2024
8.7 million in January 2024
The seasonally adjusted job openings rate decreased from 4.8% in November to 4.5% in December. By comparison, the job openings rate in December 2023 was 5.3%.
The number of job openings in December declined in professional and business services (-225,000); health care and social assistance (-180,000); and finance and insurance (-136,000). Job openings went up in arts, entertainment and recreation (+65,000).
The rate of layoffs in December remained unchanged compared to the previous month at 1.1%, according to the JOLTS report. Transportation, warehousing and utilities, as well as mining and logging saw the largest increase in layoffs.
What is the quit rate?
The JOLTS report also shows the quit rate in December decreased slightly to 2% from 2.1% in November. 1.9%. By comparison, in December 2023 the quit rate was 2.2%. Quits decreased in transportation, warehousing and utilities.
Economists say quit rates are a key factor in the health of employment prospects since quitting shows that workers feel safe making a job switch within their sector or outside it entirely.
The current quit rate is consistent with pre-pandemic levels after peaking at 3% in both Nov. 2021 and April 2022.
Are wages increasing?
Wage growth is moderating from what it was a year ago but is still higher than it was pre-pandemic, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The three-month moving average of median hourly wage growth — when measured over the previous 12 months — has slowed from its peak in the summer of 2022.
For December the three-month wage growth percent change was 4.2%, which is 0.1 percentage points lower than November’s three-month moving average rate (4.3%).
The 12-month moving average for all workers — part-time and full-time — was 4.7% for December. By comparison, the percent change for December 2023 from a year prior was 5.6%. If you look back even further, at the percent change for December 2020 from a year prior, the rate was 3.5%.
» MORE: Is the pay gap real?
Below, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta data for August shows a steady decline in the three-month moving average of wage growth compared to the peak in June 2022 and July 2022.
» MORE: What is the minimum wage?
What does the Employment Cost Index Show?
Increases in compensation costs were smaller in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with all three of the previous quarters, according to the most recent quarterly BLS Employment Cost Index, which measures wage and salary growth. Wages and salaries, as well as benefits comprise total compensation costs.
The Jan. 31 report shows compensation costs increased by 0.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared with 0.8% in the third quarter.
Year-over-year measurements show that compensation cost increases slowed down slightly in the fourth quarter of 2024 (3.8%) compared to the previous four quarters:
Q3 2024: 3.9%
Q2 2024: 4.1%
Q1 2024: 4.2%
Q4 2023: 4.2%
For the 12-month period ending in December 2024, wages and salaries had a slower increase (3.8%) compared with the 12-month period ending in December 2023 (4.3%).
Benefit costs also had a slower increase in the 12-month period ending in December (3.6%) compared to a year ago (3.8%).
Will unemployment rise?
The labor market is still strong, but continues to show signs of slackening.
The recent rise in unemployment was a byproduct of monetary policymakers’ effort to curb inflation by hiking interest rates. The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023. Now that inflation is consistently slowing, the Fed has taken steps to prevent unemployment from rising further.
The Fed cut rates at its September, November and December meetings. It paused rates at its January meeting, but has indicated that there could be some rate cuts in 2025.
» MORE: What is the minimum wage?
When is the next jobs report?
The next jobs report will show data for February and it will be released on March 7.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News via Getty Images)
