Unemployment data offer insights into the economic health of working-age people and their families. They also provide information on how well people are finding work, how long they are out of employment, and the effectiveness of job search efforts and government unemployment insurance (UI) programs.
The main source of unemployment statistics is the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly household survey that asks people whether they have jobs and what kinds of jobs they have. The results are broken down by state, industry, urban and rural areas, age, gender, race or ethnicity, and education level. The survey is designed to be used by professional researchers, journalists, and others who need a more detailed breakdown of the labor force than what is available through official reports like weekly UI initial claims or monthly employment data.
There are many complications involved with collecting unemployment statistics. The most obvious problem is that the government cannot contact every person in the country each month and ask them about their job search activities. The cost and time required would be prohibitive and people would soon grow tired of having someone call or stop by each week to discuss their work situation. Moreover, the government does not count people who are not looking for work or are only working part-time because they choose to do so.
All of these complications result in six different measures of unemployment, ranging from U-3, the official rate, to U-6, which includes all marginally attached workers as well as those who want full-time work but can only find part-time jobs. These measures are used to compute a wide range of economic indicators and appear in daily news reports, in various databases, and in many other BLS publications.