Who is counted as employed by the bls

There is no requirement or question relating to unemployment insurance benefits in the monthly survey. Does the official unemployment rate exclude people who want a job but are not currently looking for work? Yes; however, there are separate estimates of persons outside the labor force who want a job, including those who are not currently looking because they believe no jobs are available discouraged workers.

In addition, alternative measures of labor underutilization some of which include discouraged workers and other groups not officially counted as unemployed are published each month in table A of The Employment Situation news release. How can unusually severe weather affect employment and hours estimates? In the establishment survey, the reference period is the pay period that includes the 12th of the month. Unusually severe weather is more likely to have an impact on average weekly hours than on employment.

Average weekly hours are estimated for paid time during the pay period, including pay for holidays, sick leave, or other time off. The impact of severe weather on hours estimates typically, but not always, results in a reduction in average weekly hours.

For example, some employees may be off work for part of the pay period and not receive pay for the time missed, while some workers, such as those dealing with cleanup or repair, may work extra hours.

Typically, it is not possible to precisely quantify the effect of extreme weather on payroll employment estimates. In order for severe weather conditions to reduce employment estimates, employees have to be off work without pay for the entire pay period. These data, which measure flexible schedules and shift work among full-time wage and salary workers, come from a special supplemental survey last conducted in May BLS has not produced worklife estimates since February This report contains estimates of the number of years individuals would spend in the labor force based on mortality conditions, labor force entry and exit rates, and demographic characteristics.

Menu Search button Search:. Labor force characteristics This page contains information on the labor force data on characteristics of employed and unemployed persons and persons not in the labor force. Data on absences from work - learn more about the absence measures and retrieve time series Employed people who did not work during the survey reference week Missed work due to own illness -- Time series quick-links: People with a job, but not at work due to own illness, all industries People who usually work full time, but were at work part time due to own illness, all industries Missed work due to bad weather -- Time series quick-links: People with a job, but not at work due to bad weather, nonagricultural sector People who usually work full time, but were at work part time due to bad weather, nonagricultural sector Unpaid absences all reasons -- Time series quick-link: Nonagricultural wage and salary workers not at work, absence was unpaid excludes private household workers Absences from work of employed full-time wage and salary workers employee absences Annual tables Charts: 4.

Unemployment rises in , as the country battles the COVID pandemic June Job market remains tight in , as the unemployment rate falls to its lowest level since April Tight labor market continues in as the unemployment rate falls to a year low May Job market continued to improve in as the unemployment rate declined to a year low April Unemployment holds steady for much of but edges down in the fourth quarter April Unemployment rate nears prerecession level by end of April Continued improvement in U.

Computer and Internet use These data on computer and Internet use at work come from a special supplemental survey last conducted in October News release: Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements PDF Archives Frequently asked questions about contingent and alternative employment arrangements Short video introducing the concepts of contingent work and alternative employment arrangements Charts: Workers in Alternative Employment Arrangements , Spotlight on Statistics November A Look at Contingent Workers , Spotlight on Statistics September Independent contractors made up 6.

Discouraged workers Discouraged workers are a subset of persons marginally attached to the labor force. News release: Employment Situation Monthly , Table A PDF Charts Archives Schedule Database: Retrieve historical data series Seasonally adjusted series: People marginally attached to labor force and Discouraged workers Persons not in the labor force by sex, not seasonally adjusted Annual table: Persons not in the labor force by desire and availability for work, age, and sex PDF XLSX Monthly table: Persons not in the labor force by desire and availability for work, age, and sex PDF Charts: Persons not in the labor force, selected indicators Monthly Persons not in the labor force who want a job article Monthly Articles: Ranks of discouraged workers and others marginally attached to the labor force rise during recession April PDF Persons outside the labor force who want a job July PDF Displaced workers Data on displaced workers are collected from a special supplementary survey conducted every 2 years.

Trends from the Current Population Survey April Sizing up the —09 recession: comparing two key labor market indicators with earlier downturns December PDF Change in employment by occupation, industry, and earnings quartile, —05 December PDF Who was affected as the economy started to slow November PDF Earnings and employment trends in the s March PDF Employment and unemployment: the doughnut or the hole? February Full- or part-time status Full time is 35 hours or more per week; part time is 1 to 34 hours per week.

March Part time for economic reasons involuntary part time This category includes people who indicated that they would like to work full time but were working part time 1 to 34 hours because of an economic reason, such as their hours were cut back or they were unable to find full-time jobs. Hours of work Data measure average hours at work per week and distributions of employed persons by hours at work.

Labor force The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. Trends from the Current Population Survey April Labor force participation: what has happened since the peak?

Multiple jobholders Data on employed persons with more than one job. Supplemental data measuring the effects of the coronavirus COVID pandemic on the labor market Database: Retrieve historical data series Top series Persons not in the labor force by desire and availability for work More options Annual tables: Labor force status tables Persons not in the labor force by desire and availability for work, age, and sex PDF XLSX Monthly tables: Labor force status tables, seasonally adjusted Labor force status tables, not seasonally adjusted Persons not in the labor force by desire and availability for work, age, and sex PDF Chart: Reasons people give for not being in the labor force, and January Articles: People who are not in the labor force: why aren't they working?

December Ranks of discouraged workers and others marginally attached to the labor force rise during recession April PDF Labor force participation during recent labor market downturns September PDF Labor supply in a tight labor market June PDF Persons outside the labor force who want a job July PDF Occupation and industry Employed persons are classified by occupation what kind of work they do and industry what kind of work their employer or business does.

Database: Retrieve historical data series Employment and unemployment by occupation Unemployment by industry Annual tables: Employed persons by occupation and industry Annual tables: Unemployed persons by occupation and industry Monthly tables: Employed persons by occupation and industry Monthly tables: Unemployed persons by occupation and industry Median age of workers by occupation and industry NOTICE Limited historical data are available for these tables due to changes in the occupational and industry classification systems that affect comparability over time.

Self-employed persons class of worker Employed persons are categorized by class of worker based on their relationship to their employer.

These three groups will not sum to the total or percent because the total includes smaller race groups not shown separately: American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and Two or More Races. The CPS implemented changes to the race classifications in January The Current Population Survey is designed to identify biological sex.

Further information is available on the Census Bureau website. In many BLS publications, categories 2—6 are combined and shown as "Other marital status. In other tabulations, Married, spouse absent and Separated are sometimes combined under the "Separated" label. The Current Population Survey CPS identifies a person with a disability as someone who has at least one of the following conditions:. The CPS does not use Social Security disability status to identify persons with and without disabilities.

For further information, see Frequently asked questions about disability data. Armed Forces and who were civilians at the time of the survey. People on active duty at the time of the survey are outside the scope of the CPS. Members of the Reserve and National Guard are counted as veterans only if they have ever been called to active duty by Presidential order.

People who served in the Reserves and National Guard and were never called to active duty are not counted as veterans in the CPS statistics. The CPS classifies veterans into one of following service periods based on their dates of service.

They could have served anywhere in the world during these periods. Veterans who served during one of the selected wartime periods and another period are classified only in the wartime period. Specifically, they were born outside the United States or one of its outlying areas such as Puerto Rico or Guam, and neither parent was a U.

The foreign-born population includes legally-admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers, and undocumented immigrants. The survey does not specifically identify people in these categories, however. The survey asks the foreign born if they have U. The native born are people born in the United States or one of its outlying areas such as Puerto Rico or Guam or, if born abroad, had at least one parent who was a U.

Census Bureau. Wage and salary workers for earnings purposes are workers age 16 and older who receive wages, salaries, commissions, tips, payments in kind, or piece rates. Wage and salary workers for earnings purposes exclude both the incorporated and the unincorporated self-employed. The definition of wage and salary workers for earnings purposes is more narrow in scope than the general wage and salary workers definition used with labor force, employment, and unemployment data from the CPS, as the latter includes the incorporated self-employed.

Usual weekly earnings data from the Current Population Survey reflect earnings before taxes and other deductions and include any overtime pay, commissions, or tips usually received. For multiple jobholders , the data reflect earnings at their main job. The usual weekly earnings data reflect only wage and salary earnings from work, not gross income from all sources.

These data do not include the cash value of benefits such as employer-provided health insurance. The term "usual" reflects each survey respondent's own understanding of the term. If the respondent asks for a definition of "usual," interviewers are instructed to define the term as more than half the weeks worked during the past 4 or 5 months.

Prior to , survey respondents were asked how much they usually earned per week. Since January , respondents have been asked to identify the easiest way for them to report earnings hourly, weekly, biweekly, twice monthly, monthly, annually, or other and how much they usually earn in the reported time period.

Earnings reported on a basis other than weekly are converted to a weekly equivalent. Earnings data are collected about employed people only. The survey does not ask how much unemployed people earned on their last job. The median earnings level represents the midpoint in an earnings distribution, with half of workers having earnings above the median and the other half having earnings below the median. Deciles Deciles of earnings divide workers into 10 equally-sized groups, from the lowest earning to the highest earning.

There are 9 decile earnings values that form "partitions" for the 10 earnings groups; these are the first through the ninth deciles. When looking at earnings distributions by decile, this means that 10 percent of workers will earn less than the first decile amount; 20 percent will earn less than the second decile amount, and so forth. The ninth decile value divides the lowest-earning 90 percent of workers from the highest earning 10 percent of workers.

The fifth decile is the same as the median , or midpoint of the earnings distribution. Quartiles Quartiles of earnings divide workers into 4 equally-sized groups, from the lowest earning to the highest earning.

There are 3 quartile earnings values that form "partitions" for the 4 earnings groups; these are the first through the third quartiles. When looking at earnings distributions by quartile, this means that one-fourth 25 percent of workers will earn less than the first quartile amount, and three-fourths 75 percent of workers will earn less than the third quartile.

The second quartile is the same as the median , or midpoint of the earnings distribution. An earnings time series in constant dollars allows you to see how earnings have changed over time, minus the effect of inflation. Constant-dollar earnings are also sometimes referred to as "real" earnings, or inflation-adjusted earnings. Adjusting earnings to constant dollars requires a measure of price change over time.

The adjustment bases the earnings to the purchasing power of a particular year or years. Constant-dollar earnings time series sometimes may be based to the most recent year so that historical earnings data can be seen in contemporary dollars. In other cases, the series may be based to the purchasing power of an earlier time, such as — Earnings shown in current dollars have not been adjusted for inflation and reflect the purchasing power of the time period reported.

The Current Population Survey "reference" week is the specific week of the month used to determine the employment status of survey respondents, and the last week of the 4-week job search period used to determine unemployment status.

The reference week usually is the 7-day calendar week Sunday—Saturday that includes the 12th of the month, with occasional exceptions described below. Survey interviews and data collection begin in the week immediately following the reference week. This is referred to as the "survey" week, or the "interview" week, and is usually the week that includes the 19th of the month.

Exceptions to the week of the 12th: The November and December reference weeks are sometimes moved one week earlier so that survey interviewers are not contacting households during major holiday periods. For December, if the calendar week including the 5th is contained entirely within the month of December, the December reference week will be one week earlier than normal. For November, the reference week will be moved one week earlier if Thanksgiving falls during the week that contains the 19th, or if the Census Bureau determines that there is not enough data processing time before the survey interview week for December.

New data from the Current Population Survey are first published in the monthly Employment Situation news release. See the release schedule. Generally, the Employment Situation publication date is the third Friday after the week that includes the 12th. This usually results in the release being scheduled for the first Friday of the month following the reference month.

However, when the 12th of the month falls on a Sunday and there are 30 days or less in the month, the release date will be the second Friday of the month.

In addition, if the third Friday after the December reference period falls on January 1—3, the release date will be the second Friday of the month. If the normal release day Friday happens to be a federal holiday, such as July 4th, the release date will be the Thursday immediately preceding the holiday.

The Employment Situation release dates are adjusted only for designated federal holidays. The Employment Situation release dates are approved by the Office of Management and Budget and published in advance. All sub-national estimates reflect the survey respondent's place of residence. The basic survey provides up-to-date information on the labor force status of people age 16 and older, with many demographic characteristics such as age, educational attainment, race, and Hispanic ethnicity.

The ASEC is an important source of information on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage, among other things. The ASEC sometimes is referred to as the "March" supplement because traditionally it has been added to the basic survey in the month of March. Most ASEC data, including income, poverty, and health insurance coverage data, are published by the U. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical procedure that removes the effects of normal seasonal variations—resulting from events such as holidays, school openings and closings, and weather—from data series.

Seasonally adjusted data make it easier to observe cyclical and other economic trends, such as those associated with general economic expansions and contractions.

Not seasonally adjusted data are estimates as measured directly by the CPS. These data have not been subject to seasonal adjustment procedures. All annual average measures from the CPS are calculated from not seasonally adjusted data. However, not all measures are available on a seasonally adjusted basis. Menu Search button Search:.

To learn more about the survey, see the CPS overview page. Classification as unemployed in no way depends upon a person's eligibility for, or receipt of, unemployment insurance benefits. Are their numbers growing or declining? Are they men or women? Are they young or old? Are they White, or Black, or Asian, or of Hispanic ethnicity? How much education do they have? Are they concentrated in one area of the country more than another? These statistics—together with other economic data—can be used by policymakers to determine whether measures should be taken to influence the future course of the economy or to aid those affected by joblessness.

Because unemployment insurance records relate only to people who have applied for such benefits, and since it is impractical to count every unemployed person each month, the government conducts a monthly survey called the Current Population Survey CPS to measure the extent of unemployment in the country.

In , the U. Census Bureau took over responsibility for the CPS. The survey has been expanded and modified several times since then. People are considered employed if they did any work at all for pay or profit during the survey reference week.

This includes all part-time and temporary work, as well as regular full-time, year-round employment. Individuals also are counted as employed if they have a job at which they did not work during the survey week, whether they were paid or not, because they were:.

These people are counted among the employed and tabulated separately as with a job but not at work , because they have a specific job to which they will return.

People are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Actively looking for work may consist of any of the following activities:. Passive methods of job search do not have the potential to connect job seekers with potential employers and therefore do not qualify as active job search methods.

Examples of passive methods include attending a job training program or course, or merely reading about job openings that are posted in newspapers or on the Internet. Workers expecting to be recalled from temporary layoff are counted as unemployed whether or not they have engaged in a specific job seeking activity.

In all other cases, the individual must have been engaged in at least one active job search activity in the 4 weeks preceding the interview and be available for work except for temporary illness. The labor force is made up of the employed and the unemployed.