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Topic
Labor market
7 guides in Finabase Learn
- Jobless claims: reading the weekly unemployment insurance report How weekly initial and continuing jobless claims are counted, why the 4-week average matters, and what claims did in 2001, 2009 and 2020.
- JOLTS: job openings, quits and what labor turnover reveals How the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey defines openings, hires, quits and layoffs, how the rates are computed, and what openings and quits show since 2001.
- The jobs report: how to read nonfarm payrolls and the two surveys How the monthly Employment Situation report is built, why payrolls and the unemployment rate come from different surveys, how revisions work and how to read a release.
- The Sahm rule: a recession signal from the unemployment rate How the Sahm rule works, a step-by-step calculation, its record since 1960, why it crossed 0.50 in 2024 with no recession following, and real-time versus revised data.
- The unemployment rate: U-3, U-6 and labor force participation How BLS measures unemployment, what the six measures U-1 to U-6 count, why participation matters, and how to read the rate without being misled by it.
- Unemployment rate The share of the labor force that is jobless, available and actively looking for work, published monthly for the US by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Wage growth: average hourly earnings, real wages and composition What average hourly earnings measure, how to turn wage growth into real wage growth, why the April 2020 spike was not a raise, and how wages tie into inflation.
Educational content, not investment advice. Finabase Learn explains how markets and tools work. It does not recommend any security or strategy, and examples are for illustration only. Investing involves risk, including the loss of principal. Rules and figures are for the United States unless stated and can change — check the cited source before you act.