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Current Unemployment Rate and Other Jobs Report Findings
The current unemployment rate is 4.2%.
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Anna Helhoski is a senior writer covering economic news and trends in consumer finance at NerdWallet. She cohosts and produces Money News segments of NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast. She is also an authority on student loans. She joined NerdWallet in 2014. Her work has been syndicated in news outlets nationwide including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. She previously covered local news in the New York metro area for the Daily Voice and New York state politics for The Legislative Gazette. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Purchase College, State University of New York.
Laura McMullen assigns and edits financial news content. She was previously a senior writer at NerdWallet and covered saving, making and budgeting money; she also contributed to the "Millennial Money" column for The Associated Press. Before joining NerdWallet in 2015, Laura worked for U.S. News & World Report, where she wrote and edited content related to careers, wellness and education and also contributed to the company's rankings projects. Before working at U.S. News & World Report, Laura interned at Vice Media and studied journalism, history and Arabic at Ohio University. Laura lives in Washington, D.C.
The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2% in April, compared to March, according to the jobs report released on May 2 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Job gains arrived above projections for April, with a total of 177,000. The consensus estimated monthly expectation was an increase of 135,000, according to Morningstar, an investing firm.
Job gains were primarily in health care, transportation and warehousing, financial activities and social assistance.
For the third month in a row, job losses were primarily in the federal government due to the recent mass federal workforce cuts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Employees on paid leave or receiving severance are considered employed, which means the full effect of the cuts are yet to be reflected in the report.
Initial jobless claims went down by 13,000 for the week ending May 3, according to the report released on May 8.
The weekly jobless claims, or initial claims, are the number of unemployment insurance claims filed in the past week. They provide an indicator of the strength — or weakness — of the labor market.
Jobless claims decreased to 228,000 for the week ending May 3, compared to last week’s unrevised figure of 241,000.
The new four-week moving average — a measurement of the number of people who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time over the last four weeks — was 227,000, a 1,000 uptick from the previous week’s unrevised average of 226,000.
What's the insured unemployment rate?
Not all types of unemployment are included as part of the insured unemployment rate. It only includes "covered unemployment," as in people who receive unemployment benefits. Those who quit their jobs, for example, aren't included in the insured unemployment rate because they aren't eligible for unemployment benefits.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate — the rate of continuous covered unemployment claims divided by covered employment — was 1.2% for the week ending April 26, which is 0.1 percentage point lower than the previous week’s unrevised rate.
What is the current unemployment rate?
The current unemployment rate is 4.2% for April, unchanged from March. The rate is higher than unemployment rates during 2023 and 2024.
Is unemployment rising or falling?
The unemployment rate has risen since hitting a 50-year low of 3.4% in April 2023. Since May 2024, the unemployment rate has stayed between 4% and 4.2%.
The unemployment rate went up by 0.1 percentage point in January, February and March, but was unchanged in April.
How many jobs were added in March?
The economy added 177,000 (nonfarm) jobs in April, according to the BLS. The report says that April’s gains are aligned with the average monthly gain of 152,000 over the previous 12 months.
The economy added 177,000 (nonfarm) jobs in April, according to the BLS. The report says that April’s gains are aligned with the average monthly gain of 152,000 over the previous 12 months.
185,000 in March 2025.
102,000 in February 2025.
111,000 in January 2025.
323,000 in December 2024.
261,000 in November 2024.
159,068 in October 2024.
159,025 in September 2024.
158,770 in August 2024.
144,000 in July 2024.
118,000 in June 2024.
216,000 in May 2024.
175,000 in April 2024.
How to calculate the unemployment rate
The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed people by the number of people in the labor force. (The labor force is considered the sum of those who are currently working or looking for work.) The result is then multiplied by 100 to get a percentage:
Number of unemployed people / Labor force x 100 = X%, which is the unemployment rate
What is the labor force participation rate?
The labor force participation rate went up slightly at 62.6% in April compared to 62.5% in March after annual adjustments, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the population that is working or looking for work.
The rate is calculated as the labor force divided by the total population that’s eligible to work. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the total population that’s eligible to work as the “civilian noninstitutional population,” which refers to people ages 16 and older who are not in military service or incarcerated.) The result is multiplied by 100 to get a percentage:
Labor force / Civilian noninstitutional population x 100 = X%, which is the labor force participation rate
Since October 2002, the labor force participation rate was lowest in April 2020 (60.1%) and highest in June 2003 (66.5%), according to BLS data.
How is the job market right now?
In recent months, key labor market indicators — job openings, quit rate and layoffs — showed the tight labor market is loosening, but remains stable overall.
What does the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary report show?
The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS), released on April 29, shows job openings were 7.2 million in March. The number of openings is down by 901,000 compared to a year ago, according to the report.
7.5 million in February
7.8 million January
7.5 million in December
8 million in November
7.6 million in October
7.1 million in September
7.7 million in August 2024
7.5 million in July 2024
7.4 million in June 2024
7.9 million in May 2024
7.6 million in April 2024
8 million in March 2024
8.4 million in February 2024
The seasonally adjusted job openings remained at 4.3% in March, changed slightly from February (4.5%). By comparison, the job openings rate in March 2024 was 4.9%.
The number of job openings in March went down in federal government. <br>The rate of layoffs in March (1%) changed slightly compared to February (1.1%), according to the JOLTS report. The sectors with the largest increases in layoffs and discharges were retail trade (-66,000) and in the federal government (-11,000). The number of layoffs and discharges went down in state and local government, excluding education (+17,000).
The JOLTS report also shows the quit rate in March was 2.1%, changed slightly from February (2%). The current rate is the same as the quit rate in March 2024. Quits went down in transportation, warehousing, and utilities (-49,000).
Economists say quit rates are a key factor in the health of employment prospects since quitting shows that workers feel safe making a job switch within their sector or outside it entirely.
The current quit rate is consistent with pre-pandemic levels after peaking at 3% in both Nov. 2021 and April 2022.
Are wages increasing?
Wage growth is moderating from what it was a year ago but is still higher than it was pre-pandemic, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The three-month moving average of median hourly wage growth — when measured over the previous 12 months — has slowed from its peak in the summer of 2022.
For March, the three-month wage growth percent change was 4.3%, which is the same as February’s three-month moving average rate.
The 12-month moving average for all workers — part-time and full-time — was 4.6%, the same as February. By comparison, the percent change for March 2024 from a year prior was 5.2%. If you look back even further, at the percent change for March 2020 from a year prior, the rate was 3.7%.
Below, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta data for March shows a steady decline in the three-month moving average of wage growth compared to the peak in June 2022 and July 2022.
Increases in compensation costs in the first quarter of 2025 were the same as the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the most recent quarterly BLS Employment Cost Index, which measures wage and salary growth. Wages and salaries, as well as benefits comprise total compensation costs.
The April 30 report shows compensation costs increased by 0.9% in the first quarter of 2025.
Year-over-year measurements show that compensation cost increases slowed in Q1 2025 (3.6%), compared to the previous four quarters:
Q4 2024: 3.8%
Q3 2024: 3.9%
Q2 2024: 4%
Q1 2024: 3.8%
For the 12-month period ending in March 2025, wages and salaries had a slower increase (3.5%) compared with the 12-month period ending in March 2024 (4.4%).
Benefit costs had a slightly higher increase in the 12-month period ending in March (3.8%) compared to March 2024 (3.7%).
The labor market is still strong, but continues to show signs of slackening.
The recent rise in unemployment was a byproduct of monetary policymakers’ effort to curb inflation by hiking interest rates. The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023. Now that inflation is consistently slowing, the Fed has taken steps to prevent unemployment from rising further.
The Fed cut rates at its September, November and December meetings. It paused rates at its January meeting, but has indicated that there could be some rate cuts in 2025.
