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Indicators/Topics/Labor/Labor force participation rate/United States

United States

Labor force participation rate

Labor-force participation measures the share of people working or actively looking for work. It helps distinguish weak employment from people leaving the labor force.

IndicatorsLabor MarketLabor Force Participation Rate
World BankFRED
Frequencymonthly · +1Transformlevel

Source: FRED · CIVPART

Stored official data

Labor Force Participation Rate in United States was 61.8% on April 1, 2026, lower by 0.1% (-0.2%) from the prior observation. Charted from monthly observations in %.

Latest61.80%
MoM-0.16%
YoY-1.28%
10Y Avg62.46%
Latest observationApril 1, 2026
Model surprise-0.07%

Timeframe

Value transform

Version overlay

Chart appearance

Overlays & outputNBER bandsAuto Y
Axis & export

Labor Force Participation Rate time series chart. Showing observations from January 1948 to April 2026. Latest value 61.8%.

Min58.10%
Mean62.83%
Max67.30%
Latest observationApril 1, 2026

Source evidence

Tier 1 - criticalU.S. macro backbone via St. Louis Fed; revision/vintage capable.Action: deepen nowExpected coverage: 800,000 series.
Source noteProvider health
SourceFederal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED)
FRED
Native keyProvider-native identifier used to reconcile this country/provider series.
CIVPART
FreshnessDisplayed as stored official data.The provider-backed series is outside its expected freshness window, so this view should be refreshed before production use.Fetched: May 26, 2026.Latest observation flag: Preliminary.
Stored · 2026-04-01
HistoryPoint-in-time data via the FRED ALFRED endpoint. Each request returns the values as they were published on the supplied vintage date.Vintage history is derived from FRED ALFRED's realtime_start/realtime_end query parameters.
Source-native vintage
ReuseCommercial use: dataset specific.Redistribution: review required.Do not treat FRED as an automatically reusable commercial-display source. Prefer direct BEA, BLS, Census, FRB, Treasury, and EIA feeds where possible.Source: FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (CIVPART). Accessed 2026-05-26. Underlying-source rights may differ.
Dataset exceptions

Research notes

82 · Acceptable
ComparabilityAggregator is not the statistical authority: Use the source agency, source code, and methodology link when citing or reconciling with official releases.Labor definitions vary by survey and agency: Do not mix levels across definitions; compare rates or changes only after matching population, adjustment, and frequency.Seasonal-adjustment status needs attention: Prefer same-adjustment comparisons, or transform to year-over-year changes before cross-series comparison.
3 notes
QualitySource authority: 82/100. Aggregator source: useful access layer, but official methodology remains with the originating agency.Methodology completeness: 100/100. 100% of core provider, geography, unit, frequency, citation, and revision fields are populated.Timeliness and freshness: 90/100. 939 observations available; latest observation 2026-04-01; platform fetch 2026-05-26T09:45:39.143Z; release status none; data status liveRevision and vintage depth: 100/100. Point-in-time data via the FRED ALFRED endpoint. Each request returns the values as they were published on the supplied vintage date.
4/6 strong
CitationLabor Force Participation Rate (FRED (St. Louis Fed): CIVPART, United States, retrieved May 26, 2026)
Retrieved May 26, 2026

Continue browsing

Browse all Labor Market indicatorsAdjacent concepts across providers and countries.View United States macro coverageEvery curated indicator for this country.View FRED catalogFilter the discovery catalog by this provider.
Series details, provenance, and revision toolsMetadata, release notes, revision history, and related series.

Series details

SourceFederal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED)
CategoryLabor Market
FrequencyMonthly
Unit%
Latest observationApril 1, 2026
Platform last fetchMay 26, 2026
Transformslevel, mom, yoy
About this series

Labor Force Participation Rate

Related measures

Adjacent and similar concepts available for United States.

Unemployment rateU-6 underemployment rateNonfarm payroll employmentAverage hourly earningsHourly earningsEmployment cost indexInitial jobless claimsContinued jobless claims
Open country pivot

The reading right now

As of April 2026, Labor force participation rate for United States stood at 61.8%. That is down 0.1 percentage points from the prior month. Over the trailing five years, the series has averaged 62.3%, ranging from a low of 61.6% in April 2021 to a high of 62.8% in August 2023. The current reading sits 0.67 percentage points below its trailing ten-year mean of 62.5%.

Computed from the observation series on this page. Numbers update when the underlying provider revises the data.