U.S. Unemployment Rate, Professional Occupations

## What this measures

The unemployment rate for people whose last job was in a professional or related occupation: computer and math, architecture and engineering, science, legal, education, arts and media, and health practitioners.

## Why it matters

It is the closest monthly read on knowledge work. If AI displaces professional tasks faster than workers move, this rate rises before the overall rate does.

## How to read it

It is not seasonally adjusted, so compare a month with the same month a year earlier. Compare it with the overall unemployment rate (fred_unemployment): professional unemployment normally runs well below it.

## What it does not say

It classifies the unemployed by their last job, so someone who left the field shows up elsewhere. It doesn't separate AI from the cycle. The monthly sample is small and noisy.

## Source

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, series LNU04032217 ("Unemployment Rate - Professional and Related Occupations"). Palanor pulls it from the FRED API (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) nightly. Bureau of Labor Statistics data are in the public domain.