what is the u 6 unemployment rate 
the u 6 unemployment rate measures the percentage of the u s labor force that is unemployed plus those who are underemployed marginally attached to the workforce and have given up looking for work the u 6 rate is considered by many economists to be the most revealing measure of the true state of the nation s employment situation nevertheless the more widely reported unemployment number is the u 3 often referred to simply as the unemployment report the u3 reveals only the number of people who are out of work and have sought work in the past four weeks both numbers are published by the bureau of labor statistics bls 1understanding the u 6 unemployment ratethe official unemployment rate used by the u s government and published by the bureau of labor statistics bls is the u 3 rate this is the percentage of the total labor force that is unemployed and has actively sought employment within the past four weeks 2the portion of the unemployed that has not looked for a job in the past four weeks is defined as marginally attached and no longer counted as unemployed that marginally attached group includes unemployed people who have unsuccessfully looked for work sometime in the past twelve months it also includes people who have returned to school or become disabled in which case they may or may not return to the labor force at some point the u 6 rate on the other hand factors in this marginally attached percentage of the labor force in its unemployment calculation the u 6 rate also includes the underemployed in its metrics these are people who want full time jobs but have settled for part time jobs due to economic conditions while the u 3 rate considers this category of workers to be employed the u 6 counts this group as unemployed finally the u 6 rate includes the discouraged those who want a job but have given up looking the bls publishes six monthly unemployment numbers the u 3 is the official rate and is most widely quoted the u 6 is a more comprehensive look at the state of american workers 2factors of the u 6 unemployment rategallup the data analytics firm considers the u 6 rate to be the real unemployment rate and maintains that the widely quoted u 3 rate does not accurately represent the reality of joblessness in america 3gallup notes that an engineer or any other skilled professional who takes a low paying part time job to survive would not be counted in the official unemployment rate even if they make as little as 20 a week in addition the u 3 rate does not include any workers who are employed but have had their work hours reduced all of the above are termed underemployed and are included in the u 6 rate the u 3 also omits those who are unemployed but have not looked for work in the past four weeks these are the discouraged workers that the u 6 reflects the st louis fed fred tracks the u 6 rate over time on its website its chart based on bls numbers shows a startling u 6 rate of 22 9 in april 2020 during the first national covid 19 shutdown the official u 3 rate at that time was 14 7 4 in january 2020 the u 6 rate had been just 6 9 the official u 3 rate was 3 5 56example of the u 6 unemployment rateto calculate the official unemployment rate the u 3 the bls divides the total number of unemployed people by the total number of labor force participants then multiplies that number by 100 for example the june 2019 monthly rate report indicated that the total number of people that were unemployed was 6 0 million and the civilian labor force consisted of 163 0 million people the u 3 unemployment rate was 3 7 seasonally adjusted 7in the same january 2022 report the number of people that were marginally attached to the labor force totaled 1 5 million while the total number of workers with part time jobs for economic reasons was 3 7 million the u 6 unemployment rate was 7 1 seasonally adjusted 8