Participation Rate

The participation rate measures the share of the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and older who work or actively seek work. Its universe is the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and older in the 50 states and District of Columbia. It excludes active military and people living in institutions, while foreign citizens residing outside embassies are included.

The source is Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of about 60000 households conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The publisher states no target for the rate. Higher means a larger share works or seeks work, while lower means a smaller share does so. Read it with the unemployment rate and the employment population ratio for full context.

The rate is released in the monthly Employment Situation report on a preannounced schedule at 8:30 in the morning Eastern time. Answers refer to a fixed reference week each month, with interviews starting in the week after it. Each release includes unemployment, payroll employment, earnings, and hours alongside participation.

Seasonal factors are refreshed each month and applied to the release month only. Historical seasonally adjusted data for the prior 5 years are revised once a year. Population controls are updated once a year from census data on births, deaths, and migration. Revisions to establishment payroll data do not revise participation, which comes from the household survey.

Shifts reflect people entering or leaving the labor force, not job gains alone.

• Employed persons: people who did paid work for at least 1 hour or were temporarily absent from a job. It also covers unpaid work for 15 hours in a family business.

• Unemployed persons: people with no work who were available and searched actively. Search means effort in the 4 weeks ending with the reference week, or awaiting recall from layoff.

• Civilian labor force: the sum of employed and unemployed people, which forms the numerator and defines who participates.

• Civilian noninstitutional population 16+: the denominator covering civilians age 16 and older outside the military and institutions. It covers the 50 states and District of Columbia.

When people stop searching, they leave both unemployment and participation counts, so unemployment can fall while participation falls. That pattern signals weakness that unemployment alone understates, which is why readers track both together.

1. Classify: Each person age 16 and older is marked employed, unemployed, or outside the labor force using reference week and 4 week search rules.

1. Weight: Records receive base weights from selection chances, then adjustments for nonresponse, sampling, census control totals, and overlap from the 4-8-4 rotation.

1. Aggregate: Add weighted employed and unemployed totals to form the labor force, while population comes from independent census controls.

1. Divide: Divide the labor force by the population and multiply by 100 to give a percent in 1 decimal place. For example, 161.0 million employed plus 7.0 million unemployed gives 168.0 million in the labor force. Then 168.0 million divided by 268.0 million gives 62.7 percent.

1. Adjust seasonally: Apply concurrent seasonal adjustment each month to remove normal seasonal patterns, then revise 5 years of history each year.