U.S. All Workers 16–65 · Unemployment Rate (NY Fed)

## What this measures

The unemployment rate of all workers aged 16 to 65 who are not enrolled in school, computed by the New York Fed from the Current Population Survey on the same basis as its recent-graduate series. Monthly from January 1990, seasonally adjusted and smoothed with a three-month moving average.

## Why it matters

It is the like-for-like benchmark for the NY Fed's recent-graduate rate: same survey, same smoothing, same exclusion of students. Comparing graduates with the official headline rate instead would mix in those differences.

## How to read it

Use it as the reference line for labor.nyfed.recent_grads.unemployment_rate; the difference between the two is labor.nyfed.recent_grads.unemployment_gap. For the economy-wide rate itself, use the official BLS headline (fred_unemployment). The two move together, except when unemployment jumps suddenly: in 2020 the three-month smoothing left this series well below the headline in April and May and above it from June.

## What it does not say

It is not the official unemployment rate: the age band, the exclusion of students and the smoothing differ, so its level is not the published headline. October 2025 is estimated by the NY Fed because the survey was not collected that month. The NY Fed revises the history when it updates.

## Source

Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates (newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market), from the Current Population Survey (IPUMS). © Federal Reserve Bank of New York; content subject to the Terms of Use at newyorkfed.org. Updated quarterly; Palanor checks monthly.