Tracker
Labor Force Participation Rate
Share of adults working or looking for work.
61.8%
Percent · latest, May 2026
Source: FRED · CIVPART · series · Jan 1948 to May 2026
· latest-revised
Reading it. Counts people in the labor force (employed or actively job-seeking). Moves with demographics as well as the cycle — an aging population pulls it down over time, independent of recessions.
About the bands. Shaded spans are NBER-dated US recessions, drawn as factual overlays. They mark when the economy contracted, not why. Lining an event or policy up with a move on this chart is not evidence that it caused the move.