Total Unemployed Workers
Total unemployed workers are people without a job who were available for work and actively searched during the prior four weeks, from the BLS household survey. The count is the denominator for the unemployment rate and for the job-openings-per-unemployed-worker ratio.
Unemployed workers
Next release: Sep 4, 2026
Latest reading
As of July 2026, Unemployed Workers (Unemployed workers) stands at 6.92M — down from 7.09M the prior reading, 70% below the April 2020 record of 23.1M. The level rises when job losses exceed hiring and falls when workers find jobs or leave the labor force. Because population grows, use it alongside the unemployment rate rather than as a stand-alone threshold. Its most valuable role is converting JOLTS openings into a tightness ratio: above one means more openings than active job seekers. Series history runs from 1948 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-08-21 · Open ↓Close ↑
Full history
Methodology & data
Unemployed Workers is sourced from BLS via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (BLS Current Population Survey via FRED (UNEMPLOY), 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 Total Unemployed Workers?
Total unemployed workers are people without a job who were available for work and actively searched during the prior four weeks, from the BLS household survey. The count is the denominator for the unemployment rate and for the job-openings-per-unemployed-worker ratio.
How do you read Unemployed Workers?
The level rises when job losses exceed hiring and falls when workers find jobs or leave the labor force. Because population grows, use it alongside the unemployment rate rather than as a stand-alone threshold. Its most valuable role is converting JOLTS openings into a tightness ratio: above one means more openings than active job seekers.
Where does the Unemployed Workers data come from?
BLS Current Population Survey via FRED (UNEMPLOY), 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/unemployed-workers.csv.
How often is Unemployed Workers updated?
Unemployed Workers is a monthly series from BLS, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.
Unemployed workers
Next release: Sep 4, 2026