Understanding the Unemployment RateVideo: U-3 and Other Unemployment Concepts

Published December 2021

Texas’ unemployment rate fell slightly to 5.4 percent in October 2021. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the unemployment rate has realized gradual decreases since April 2021. For most of us, that might be all we hear about it. Until next month, that is, when — up or down — the unemployment rate again leads the headlines. Economists look to an array of metrics when analyzing the health of the labor market. Watch the video for more on the unemployment rate and see why we don’t stop with the one datapoint.

For more on how the pandemic impacted jobs in Texas, see our May 2020 and September 2020 issues of Fiscal Notes. Or explore the data further in TexIndex. Read about the discussion around employment data beyond the U-3 unemployment rate in the archives.