Let’s say you want to find out how the U.S. labor market is doing. A simple search could turn up countless pieces of economic information.
Take the St. Louis Fed’s online economic database FRED as an example. In FRED, about 100,000 data series have the tag “employment.” The tags “labor” and “unemployment” have about 30,000 each.
Here are some key indicators you could look at to help you track the U.S. labor market. The list is largely based on indicators Fed Chair Jerome Powell mentioned in remarks on Aug. 23, 2024. He spoke at the annual Jackson Hole, Wyo., symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.