The Employment Situation — July 2026

The report was released on August 7, 2026, by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry.

Both the unemployment rate, at 4.1%, and the number of unemployed people, at 6.9 million, changed little in July. These measures also changed little over the year. Both the labor force participation rate, at 61.4%, and the employment-population ratio, at 58.9%, changed little in July. Since January, the labor . . .