Unemployment Rate · Wisconsin

## What this measures

The unemployment rate for Wisconsin: people without a job who are available for work and looked for one in the past four weeks, as a share of everyone working or looking. Monthly, in percent, seasonally adjusted.

## Why it matters

It is the most direct read on how hard it is to find work in Wisconsin, and it moves with hiring, layoffs and local industries. Comparing it with the national rate (fred_unemployment) shows whether the state is running hotter or cooler than the country.

## How to read it

Percent of the labor force. Lower means a tighter job market. Monthly moves of a tenth of a point are within the estimate's noise.

## What it does not say

State rates are model-based estimates that combine the national household survey with payroll and unemployment-insurance data, so small states carry wider error. Each March the Bureau of Labor Statistics revises five years of history. It leaves out people who have stopped looking, and it says nothing about wages or hours.

## Source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), unemployment rate for Wisconsin, seasonally adjusted (FRED series WIUR). Public domain. Palanor pulls it from the FRED API (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) nightly.