• U.S. Unemployment: Official Rate vs. Alternative Rate

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Alternative Rate: Official unemployment rate plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force. Click on chart to enlarge. Involuntary Part-Time Workers: The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons rose from 8.0 million in August to 8.6 million in September. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. Marginally Attached Workers:In September, 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there were 802,000 discouraged workers in September, a decline of 235,000 from a year earlier. Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.7 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in September had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Source: USDOL-BLS

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