UNRATELabor MarketMonthly

Unemployment Rate

The civilian unemployment rate is the percentage of the labor force that is jobless and actively searching for work. Published monthly by the BLS as part of the Employment Situation report.

Update frequency
Monthly
Unit
%
Historical coverage
1948-01/..

Why UNRATE matters

Recession detection (Sahm Rule triggers when the 3-month average rises 0.5pp above the prior 12-month low), Fed policy inputs, and cyclical trend analysis.

Get the latest value

Fetch the most recent Unemployment Rate reading with a single GET request. Free tier includes 100 calls per day.

# cURL curl -H "X-API-Key: brd_your_key" \ https://api.bullrundata.com/api/v1/indicators/UNRATE # Python import requests r = requests.get( "https://api.bullrundata.com/api/v1/indicators/UNRATE", headers={"X-API-Key": "brd_your_key"}, ) print(r.json()) # JavaScript const res = await fetch("https://api.bullrundata.com/api/v1/indicators/UNRATE", { headers: { "X-API-Key": "brd_your_key" }, }); const data = await res.json();

Full historical time series

Retrieve the complete Unemployment Rate history with min/max/change statistics. Use the range parameter to control the window (1m, 3m, 6m, 1y, 2y, 5y — Enterprise plan extends further).

curl -H "X-API-Key: brd_your_key" \ "https://api.bullrundata.com/api/v1/indicators/UNRATE/timeseries?range=5y"

Aliases

You can also address this indicator using these shortcuts — the API resolves them to the canonical series ID transparently:

UNEMPLOYMENT

Related Labor Market indicators

PAYEMS

Nonfarm Payrolls

IC4WSA

Initial Jobless Claims (4-Week Avg)

JTSQUR

Job Openings: Quits Rate

Start querying UNRATE in 30 seconds

Free API key includes 100 calls per day. No credit card required.