BLS alternative measures of labor underutilization (U-4 to U-6)
Monthly U.S. alternative measures of labor underutilization from the BLS Current Population Survey (CPS), Table A-15: U-4 (unemployed plus discouraged workers), U-5 (plus all other persons marginally attached to the labor force), and U-6 (plus total employed part time for economic reasons). Rates in percent, seasonally adjusted. U-3 (the official unemployment rate) is published in bls_unemployment. October 2025 is unavailable upstream (2025 lapse in appropriations) and stays null.
- Rows
- 708
- Columns
- 4
- Source cadence
- Monthly
- Last refreshed
- Sep 28, 2026
- Theme
- labor
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| date | date | Period of observation, mapped from the BLS API 'year' and 'period' fields (for example '2026' + 'M08' becomes 2026-08-01; '2026' + 'Q02' becomes 2026-04-01, the first day of the quarter). Monthly and quarterly periods are kept; annual averages (M13) are dropped. |
| series_id | string | BLS series identifier, e.g. 'CES0000000001' or 'CUSR0000SA0'. Encodes the survey, area, item, and seasonal adjustment; formats are documented at bls.gov/help/hlpforma.htm. |
| series_label | string | Official BLS series title from the Bureau's series catalog (data.bls.gov/timeseries), e.g. 'All employees, thousands, total nonfarm, seasonally adjusted'. |
| value | float | Observed value from the BLS API 'value' field. Units follow the series definition: employment and unemployment levels are in thousands of persons/jobs, average hourly earnings in dollars, weekly hours in hours, rates in percent, and CPI/PPI series in index points. Missing observations are null. |
First 10 sample rows — a preview, not the complete dataset.
| date | series_id | series_label | value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-01-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.9 |
| 2007-02-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.8 |
| 2007-03-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.6 |
| 2007-04-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.7 |
| 2007-05-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.7 |
| 2007-06-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.8 |
| 2007-07-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.9 |
| 2007-08-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.9 |
| 2007-09-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.9 |
| 2007-10-01T00:00:00 | LNS13327707 | (Seas) Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers (U-4) | 4.9 |
Profiled Sep 28, 2026 from snapshot 20260928T035448Z-750c529660e7
Measured- Completeness
- 99.9%
- Rows
- 708
- Columns
- 4
- Columns with gaps
- 1
| Column | Missing | Distinct | Range | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| datetimestamp | 0% | 231 | Jan 1, 2007 → Aug 1, 2026 | — |
| series_idvarchar | 0% | 3 | — |
|
| series_labelvarchar | 0% | 3 | — |
|
| valuedouble | 0.42% | 114 | 3.7 → 22.9median 7.2 | 8 outside 1st–99th percentile |
- Current
20260928T035448Z-750c529660e7 · sha256 750c529660e7…
708 rows · first snapshot
Point any LLM at the metadata endpoint — the documentation above is machine-readable too (JSON-LD + Croissant).
curl "https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/bls/bls_labor_underutilization" | jq '{title, rows, columns_count, license}'import requests
ds = requests.get("https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/bls/bls_labor_underutilization").json()
print(ds["title"], ds["rows"], "rows")
# Sample rows for an LLM context window
for row in ds.get("sample_rows", [])[:5]:
print(row)API endpoint: https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/bls/bls_labor_underutilization
Tip: fetch /llms.txt for the full machine-readable catalog.
Where this data comes from and what was made from it. Other people's work shows as counts; only shared projects are named.
Cite this snapshot
Pinned to snapshot 20260928T035448Z-750c529660e7 and its content hash, so readers get exactly the data you used.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026). BLS alternative measures of labor underutilization (U-4 to U-6) [Data set, snapshot 20260928T035448Z-750c529660e7, sha256 750c529660e7]. Datazimuts. Retrieved 2026-09-28, from https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/bls/bls_labor_underutilization?snapshot=20260928T035448Z-750c529660e7
@misc{dz_bls_bls_labor_underutilization_750c5296,
title = {{BLS alternative measures of labor underutilization (U-4 to U-6)}},
author = {{U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics}},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Datazimuts},
howpublished = {\url{https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/bls/bls_labor_underutilization?snapshot=20260928T035448Z-750c529660e7}},
note = {Snapshot 20260928T035448Z-750c529660e7, sha256 750c529660e7d43ba74eaff9ba9b7416c0f7ae6a992f3ca314b78a5231a54bdc; accessed 2026-09-28}
}Embed a table or a chart
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<iframe src="https://datazimuts.com/embed/chart?dataset=bls%2Fbls_labor_underutilization&lang=en&theme=auto&snapshot=20260928T035448Z-750c529660e7&x=date&y=value&agg=avg" title="BLS alternative measures of labor underutilization (U-4 to U-6)" width="100%" height="380" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
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