Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics — Current Population Survey via FRED
Data through: September 2026 · updated Oct 2 · Updates: Monthly · Next: Nov 6
MThe three bars show the last 3 months for this indicator, oldest left to newest right. Bar height reflects each reading relative to the other two — the tallest is the highest of the three, the shortest the lowest.
Historical context: Currently in the 19th percentile — near historically low/favorable levels.
What this means right now: U-6 is healthy — between 7% and 9%, the most common band: about two months in five since 1994 (154 of 392). Only 8 of those months fell inside a recession. Since 2007, wages in those months typically grew 3.5% a year.
U-6 Unemployment Rate · Monthly · 1994–2026
NBER recessions
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Monthly values
U-6 Unemployment Rate — the last 12 months
Every month's reading, with the band the heatmap gives it. The chart above shows the same series in full.
Month
Value
Band
Sep 2026
7.6%
Healthy reading
Aug 2026
7.7%
Healthy reading
Jul 2026
7.9%
Healthy reading
Jun 2026
7.9%
Healthy reading
May 2026
8.1%
Healthy reading
Apr 2026
8.2%
Healthy reading
Month-end readings of the same series the chart shows, from u6_unemployment. Values are the current record, not point-in-time: a month that has since been revised shows its revised value.
What is the U-6 Unemployment?
The U-6 unemployment rate is the broadest measure of slack in the job market published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It counts:
1. Unemployed workers (the same people as U-3, the "headline" rate)
2. Marginally attached workers — people who want work and looked in the past year, but not in the past 4 weeks
3. Part-time for economic reasons — people who want full-time work but can only find part-time
U-6 usually runs 3-5 percentage points above the headline U-3 rate and gives a fuller picture of stress in the job market.
How We Color-Code the U-6 Unemployment
Our heatmap colors this indicator against historically significant thresholds:
Below 7.0%
Very tight labor market — minimal slack, full employment
7.0% – 9.0%
Healthy labor market with limited underemployment
9.0% – 11.0%
Moderate labor slack — some underemployment present
Severe labor market stress — recession-level underemployment
Historical Extremes — What Happened Next?
When this indicator reaches extreme levels, history shows consistent patterns:
Apr 2020COVID shock
22.9%
The highest reading ever, as millions lost their jobs or had their hours cut
Dec 2022Post-pandemic low
6.6%
The lowest reading in the series, matched in April 2023 — the tightest the post-pandemic job market got.
Dec 2009GFC peak
17.2%
The highest reading outside COVID, matched in April 2010, with millions working fewer hours than they wanted.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is U-6 different from the headline unemployment rate?
The headline rate (U-3) counts only people without jobs who actively looked for work in the past 4 weeks. U-6 also counts discouraged workers who gave up looking and part-time workers who want full-time work. U-6 usually runs 3-5 points higher than U-3.
Why does U-6 matter?
U-6 picks up hidden slack that U-3 misses. When U-6 falls along with U-3, the job market is genuinely tightening. When U-6 stays high while U-3 falls, people are moving into part-time or marginal work rather than real full-time jobs — a weaker recovery than the headline shows.
What does the U-6 unemployment rate include that the headline U-3 rate misses?
U-6 adds two groups the headline U-3 leaves out. The first is "marginally attached" workers — people who want a job and looked in the past year, but not in the past 4 weeks, including those who have given up. The second is people working part-time because they cannot find full-time work. Both are real slack in the job market, and both hold down wages and spending. U-6 usually runs 3–5 percentage points above U-3 in normal times and widens sharply in recessions.
Why does the Federal Reserve pay attention to U-6 even though it targets U-3 in its mandate?
The Fed's goal of maximum employment is broad, and U-6 is one of the wider measures of it. A falling U-6 means the improvement is broad: not just fewer unemployed, but people who had stopped looking coming back and part-timers moving to full-time. When U-6 falls while U-3 stays flat, the gain came from those two groups rather than from the unemployed.
At what U-6 level does the labor market indicate genuine full employment?
Before the pandemic, economists took U-6 of about 6.5–7.5% as full employment; in 2019 U-6 reached 6.8%, the lowest since 2000. Readings below 7% have been rare — 22 months, in 2000, 2019 and 2022–23 — and they were the tightest job markets on record: headline unemployment around 3.6% and, since 2007, wages growing 3% to 5.5% a year. Above 9%, wages have typically grown 2.2% a year since 2007, against 3.6% when the rate was at or below 9%.