US Employment Rate
The share of all people aged 16 and over who are currently in paid work.
59.2%
Matches the latest releaseNot refreshed recently, awaiting the next release
Explore the full US economy26 live indicators on one dashboard, from growth and prices to jobs, trade and public finances. Updated automatically from official sources.Employment Rate
Jan 1970 to Sep 2026
Source: FRED series EMRATIO · seasonally adjusted (BLS).
US Employment Rate in context
Worked out from the published series shown above.
In the US, the employment rate fell by 0.5pp over the year to Sep 2026, from 59.7% in Sep 2025.
Over the past five years it has ranged from 58.8% in Sep 2021 to 60.4% in Mar 2023.
Its average since Jan 1970 is 60.3%, and the latest reading is below that.
How this series is defined
Everything you need to check the figure against the source.
- Source
- BLS via FRED
- Series
- EMRATIO
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Unit
- %
- Seasonal adjustment
- Seasonally adjusted
- Latest observation
- Sep 2026
- Revision status
- Latest published estimate, subject to revision
Data refreshed 2026-11-06. Figures are the latest published observations and can be revised.
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