Insight • Data • Economics • Analysis
State Unemployment Rates: 4-Quarter Moving Average
Unemployment is officially measured as a share of the labor force consisting of individuals without a job, but who are available to work and have actively sought employment in the last four weeks. This official figure is known as the U3 rate and is one of six measures of labor underutilization from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that provide greater detail on unemployed workers (U1 and U2) and perspectives on the share of individuals who are not officially unemployed but are defined as discouraged (U4), marginally attached (U5) or working part-time for economic reasons (U6).1 These measures are reported using a four-quarter moving average (e.g., Q2 of 2020 to Q1 of 2021) to increase the reliability of the estimates and remove the influences of seasonality.
Unsurprisingly, the four-quarter averages for these labor underutilization measures increased dramatically with the onset of the pandemic. While these measures do not reflect Wisconsin’s most current employment conditions, the rates of growth for all six measures are slowing and may be peaking. If so, these measures suggest that Wisconsin’s labor market is rebounding and will not face the sustained high rates of labor underutilization experienced during the recovery from the Great Recession.”
- For additional information see: https://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm
