U-6 Underemployment Rate
U-6 adds people marginally attached to the labor force and workers employed part time for economic reasons to the headline U-3 unemployment measure. It captures underused labor that U-3 misses, including people who want full-time work but cannot obtain it.
U-6 underemployment rate
Next release: Sep 4, 2026
Latest reading
As of July 2026, U-6 Underemployment (U-6 underemployment rate) stands at 7.9% — unchanged from 7.9% the prior reading, 15.0 pp below the April 2020 record of 22.9%. U-6 should always exceed U-3; the level and the gap between them show hidden slack. A rising U-6 while U-3 is stable can reveal deteriorating job quality before headline unemployment reacts. Compare it with its own twelve-month trend because structural levels differ across cycles. Series history runs from 1994 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-08-21 · Open ↓Close ↑
Full history
Methodology & data
U-6 Underemployment is sourced from BLS via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (BLS Current Population Survey via FRED (U6RATE), monthly, seasonally adjusted). We pull the complete history, chart it on a monthly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date, last updated 2026-08-21. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the U-6 Underemployment Rate?
U-6 adds people marginally attached to the labor force and workers employed part time for economic reasons to the headline U-3 unemployment measure. It captures underused labor that U-3 misses, including people who want full-time work but cannot obtain it.
How do you read U-6 Underemployment?
U-6 should always exceed U-3; the level and the gap between them show hidden slack. A rising U-6 while U-3 is stable can reveal deteriorating job quality before headline unemployment reacts. Compare it with its own twelve-month trend because structural levels differ across cycles.
Where does the U-6 Underemployment data come from?
BLS Current Population Survey via FRED (U6RATE), monthly, seasonally adjusted. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/u6-unemployment.csv.
How often is U-6 Underemployment updated?
U-6 Underemployment is a monthly series from BLS, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.
U-6 underemployment rate
Next release: Sep 4, 2026