United States

U-6 underemployment rate

Name: U-6 underemployment rate data for United States
Creator: FRED
License: https://macrobymark.com/about/terms-of-use#data-providers

Broad unemployment including marginal attachment and part-time for economic reasons.

FRED

FrequencymonthlyTransformlevel

Source: FRED · U6RATE

Stored official data

U-6 underemployment rate - United States in United States was 8.1% on May 1, 2026, lower by 0.1% (-1.2%) from the prior observation. Charted from monthly observations in %.

Latest8.10%

MoM-1.22%

YoY+3.85%

10Y Avg8.48%

Latest observationMay 1, 2026

Model surprise-0.04%

Timeframe

Value transform

Version overlay

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Chart appearance

TypeScale

Overlays & outputNBER bandsAuto Y

Axis & export

Min6.60%

Mean10.00%

Max22.90%

Latest observationMay 1, 2026

Source evidence

Tier 1 - critical

Source note Provider health

Source

FRED

Native key

U6RATE

Freshness

Stored · 2026-05-01

History

Source-native vintage

Reuse

Dataset exceptions

Research notes

80 · 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. 388 observations available; latest observation 2026-05-01; platform fetch 2026-06-19T07:14:46.249Z; 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.

3/6 strong

CitationU-6 underemployment rate - United States (FRED (St. Louis Fed): U6RATE, United States, retrieved Jun 19, 2026)

Retrieved Jun 19, 2026

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Series details, provenance, and revision toolsMetadata, release notes, revision history, and related series.

Series details

SourceFederal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED)

CategoryLabor

FrequencyMonthly

Unit%

Latest observationMay 1, 2026

Platform last fetchJune 19, 2026

Transformslevel, mom, yoy, index 100

About this series

Total Unemployed, Plus All Persons Marginally Attached to the Labor Force, Plus Total Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons, as a Percent of the Civilian Labor Force Plus All Persons Marginally Attached to the Labor Force (U-6)

The reading right now

As of May 2026, U-6 underemployment rate for United States stood at 8.1%. That is down 0.1 percentage points from the prior month. Over the trailing five years, the series has averaged 7.55%, ranging from a low of 6.6% in December 2022 to a high of 10.1% in May 2021. The current reading sits 0.38 percentage points below its trailing ten-year mean of 8.48%.

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