Home/Data/Unemployment/Methodology
METHODOLOGY & REVISIONS

US Unemployment Rate

Primary source

All values come directly from BLS via FRED (UNRATE). We do not modify, smooth, or interpolate published values.

The percentage of the US civilian labor force that is jobless and actively seeking employment. Published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A core indicator of economic health; lower rates typically signal tight labor markets and upward wage pressure.

Update schedule

Monthly — we refresh daily; new values typically appear on the upstream release calendar.

We gate dateModified updates to actual value changes (threshold: 0.01% absolute or 0.5% relative) to prevent freshness spoofing. If the upstream value hasn't moved, we don't claim we updated the page.

Downloadable data

Full historical series is available as CSV with primary-source attribution:

Download CSVPrimary source →

Licensed CC-BY-4.0. When citing, include both CalcFi and the primary source.

Corrections log

No corrections issued on this series.

Spot an error? Email corrections@calcfi.app. Confirmed errors are fixed within 48 hours and logged here with date and nature of the change.

How to cite

For journalism, research, or educational use, cite both the primary source and CalcFi's canonical URL. Example (APA):

CalcFi. (2026). US Unemployment Rate. Retrieved from https://calcfi.app/data/employment/unemployment-rate/revisions. Source: BLS via FRED (UNRATE).

Full APA / MLA / BibTeX citations are on the series page.

Editorial standards

See CalcFi Editorial Standards for our full methodology, data sources, and correction policy.