
Line chart titled “US Unemployment Rate” comparing U-3 (unemployed) and U-6 (under-employed) from Dec 2016–Dec 2022. Both series are steady and slowly falling through 2019, then spike sharply at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (U-3 ~15%, U-6 ~23%) and decline through 2021–2022. By late 2022 U-3 is ~3–4% and U-6 ~6–7%. U-6 is consistently higher than U-3 throughout.
- What the chart shows: Two lines: an olive line for Unemployed (U-3) and a blue line for Under-employed (U-6), plotted as percent of the labor force on the y-axis (3%–23%) across time on the x-axis (Dec 2016 to Dec 2022).
- Series meaning (context):