U-3
Business & Finance abbreviation · Economics
| Stands for | Official unemployment rate (U-3) |
|---|---|
| Categories | Business & Finance |
U-3 stands for Official unemployment rate (U-3), an economics abbreviation.
Headline US unemployment rate: the share of the labor force that is jobless, available for work and has looked for a job in the past four weeks. It is one of six measures of labor underutilization, labeled U-1 to U-6, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Example: U-3 held at 4.1 percent, while the broader U-6 rate edged up.
Usage notes
The rate comes from the Current Population Survey of about 60,000 households. People who have stopped looking for work are not counted as unemployed, which critics say understates slack. US unemployment peaked at 14.8 percent in April 2020.
Related abbreviations
More economics abbreviations
- AD – Aggregate demand
- AS – Aggregate supply
- ATC – Average total cost
- AVC – Average variable cost
- BoC – Bank of Canada
- BoE – Bank of England
- BoJ – Bank of Japan
- BoP – Balance of payments
- BOT – Balance of trade
- BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa
- CAD – Current account deficit
- CBA – Cost-benefit analysis