Market Intelligence
Employment
The U.S. unemployment rate, total nonfarm payroll employment, and average hourly earnings — the three figures most commonly cited from BLS's monthly Employment Situation and Current Employment Statistics reports.
10-second takeaway
Unemployment rate: 4.2%
As of September 2026 — down 0.2 points vs. September 2025 (4.4%)
Nonfarm payrolls added 29 thousand jobs in September 2026 vs. August 2026. Over the past 12 months, payrolls changed by +496 thousand (+0.31%). Average hourly earnings were $37.81, up 3.02% year-over-year.
The unemployment rate is the share of the labor force that is jobless and actively looking for work. Total nonfarm payroll employment counts the number of paid U.S. jobs outside of farming, private households, and a few other small categories — the month-to-month CHANGE in this figure (jobs added/lost) is what financial press usually leads with, not the raw level. Average hourly earnings measures wage growth for production and nonsupervisory employees in the private sector. None of these three figures move in lockstep with each other or with the stock market — they describe the labor market, not asset prices.
- Source
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
- Observation date
- September 2026
- Last refreshed
- Nov 1, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC
Methodology — how this is calculated
Values come directly from the BLS Public Data API — series LNS14000000 (unemployment rate), CES0000000001 (total nonfarm payroll employment), and CES0500000003 (average hourly earnings, all employees, total private) — source endpoint, data accessed 2026-11-01 — fetched and committed as a static, versioned snapshot; this page never fetches data at request time.
Limitations — what this does NOT tell you
BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov. The figures and calculations on this page are derived from BLS data but are not produced, reviewed, or endorsed by BLS. No BLS logo or seal is used anywhere on this site. Each of the three underlying series is independently fetched and can have its own real publication gap (e.g. a federal government funding lapse) — a missing field for a given month is omitted here, never estimated. These figures are national aggregates and do not reflect any specific region, industry, or household.
Not investment advice — not a prediction
Market Intelligence indicators describe publicly available historical data. They are not personalized investment, tax, or legal advice, and no indicator shown in this section should be read as a buy/sell signal or a guarantee about future market direction.
Unemployment rate over time
Monthly unemployment rate, January 2017 through September 2026.
View full data table (116 observations)
| Date | Unemployment rate (%) |
|---|---|
| Jan 2017 | 4.7% |
| Feb 2017 | 4.6% |
| Mar 2017 | 4.4% |
| Apr 2017 | 4.4% |
| May 2017 | 4.4% |
| Jun 2017 | 4.3% |
| Jul 2017 | 4.3% |
| Aug 2017 | 4.4% |
| Sep 2017 | 4.3% |
| Oct 2017 | 4.2% |
| Nov 2017 | 4.2% |
| Dec 2017 | 4.1% |
| Jan 2018 | 4.0% |
| Feb 2018 | 4.1% |
| Mar 2018 | 4.0% |
| Apr 2018 | 4.0% |
| May 2018 | 3.8% |
| Jun 2018 | 4.0% |
| Jul 2018 | 3.8% |
| Aug 2018 | 3.8% |
| Sep 2018 | 3.7% |
| Oct 2018 | 3.8% |
| Nov 2018 | 3.8% |
| Dec 2018 | 3.9% |
| Jan 2019 | 4.0% |
| Feb 2019 | 3.8% |
| Mar 2019 | 3.8% |
| Apr 2019 | 3.7% |
| May 2019 | 3.6% |
| Jun 2019 | 3.6% |
| Jul 2019 | 3.7% |
| Aug 2019 | 3.6% |
| Sep 2019 | 3.5% |
| Oct 2019 | 3.6% |
| Nov 2019 | 3.6% |
| Dec 2019 | 3.6% |
| Jan 2020 | 3.6% |
| Feb 2020 | 3.5% |
| Mar 2020 | 4.4% |
| Apr 2020 | 14.8% |
| May 2020 | 13.2% |
| Jun 2020 | 11.0% |
| Jul 2020 | 10.2% |
| Aug 2020 | 8.4% |
| Sep 2020 | 7.8% |
| Oct 2020 | 6.9% |
| Nov 2020 | 6.7% |
| Dec 2020 | 6.7% |
| Jan 2021 | 6.4% |
| Feb 2021 | 6.2% |
| Mar 2021 | 6.1% |
| Apr 2021 | 6.1% |
| May 2021 | 5.8% |
| Jun 2021 | 5.9% |
| Jul 2021 | 5.4% |
| Aug 2021 | 5.1% |
| Sep 2021 | 4.7% |
| Oct 2021 | 4.5% |
| Nov 2021 | 4.1% |
| Dec 2021 | 3.9% |
| Jan 2022 | 4.0% |
| Feb 2022 | 3.9% |
| Mar 2022 | 3.7% |
| Apr 2022 | 3.7% |
| May 2022 | 3.6% |
| Jun 2022 | 3.6% |
| Jul 2022 | 3.5% |
| Aug 2022 | 3.6% |
| Sep 2022 | 3.5% |
| Oct 2022 | 3.6% |
| Nov 2022 | 3.6% |
| Dec 2022 | 3.5% |
| Jan 2023 | 3.5% |
| Feb 2023 | 3.6% |
| Mar 2023 | 3.5% |
| Apr 2023 | 3.4% |
| May 2023 | 3.6% |
| Jun 2023 | 3.6% |
| Jul 2023 | 3.5% |
| Aug 2023 | 3.7% |
| Sep 2023 | 3.7% |
| Oct 2023 | 3.9% |
| Nov 2023 | 3.7% |
| Dec 2023 | 3.8% |
| Jan 2024 | 3.7% |
| Feb 2024 | 3.9% |
| Mar 2024 | 3.9% |
| Apr 2024 | 3.9% |
| May 2024 | 3.9% |
| Jun 2024 | 4.1% |
| Jul 2024 | 4.2% |
| Aug 2024 | 4.2% |
| Sep 2024 | 4.1% |
| Oct 2024 | 4.1% |
| Nov 2024 | 4.2% |
| Dec 2024 | 4.1% |
| Jan 2025 | 4.0% |
| Feb 2025 | 4.2% |
| Mar 2025 | 4.2% |
| Apr 2025 | 4.2% |
| May 2025 | 4.3% |
| Jun 2025 | 4.1% |
| Jul 2025 | 4.3% |
| Aug 2025 | 4.3% |
| Sep 2025 | 4.4% |
| Nov 2025 | 4.5% |
| Dec 2025 | 4.4% |
| Jan 2026 | 4.3% |
| Feb 2026 | 4.4% |
| Mar 2026 | 4.3% |
| Apr 2026 | 4.3% |
| May 2026 | 4.3% |
| Jun 2026 | 4.2% |
| Jul 2026 | 4.1% |
| Aug 2026 | 4.1% |
| Sep 2026 | 4.2% |