The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its employment / unemployment report for September on November 20^th, 2025.

Employment / Unemployment 

• Delayed Due to Government Shut Down
• Last Available BLS Data (for September)
• Seasonally Adjusted U3- 4.4% Up from 4.3%
• Unadjusted U3- 4.3% Down from 4.5% in August
• Unadjusted U6- 7.7% Down from 8.2% in August
• Labor Force Participation Rate- 62.4% Up from 62.3%
• Employment- 159.732 million Up from 159.415 million
• Next data release December 16, 2025

Summary:

Total Employed increased in September, Unadjusted Unemployment was down, but Seasonally adjusted Unemployment increased.

According to the Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 119,000 in September but has shown little change since April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The unemployment rate, at 4.4 percent, changed little in September. Employment continued to trend up in health care, food services and drinking places, and social assistance. Job losses occurred in transportation and warehousing and in federal government…

Publication of September data was delayed by more than 6 weeks because of a lapse in federal appropriations. Collection of September data for the household survey had been completed in accordance with our normal schedule prior to the federal government shutdown. September estimates from the establishment survey include both data collected on our normal schedule prior to the shutdown and also September data that businesses self-reported electronically during the shutdown…

Establishment survey data for October 2025 will be published with the November 2025 data… Household survey data were not collected for the October 2025 reference period “

You can read the full BLS report here.

Current Unemployment Rate Chart

Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment is up from 4.3% to 4.4%. As we can see, unemployment is 1% above the January and April lows of 2023 but relatively unchanged over the last year.

Current Employment Level

In February 2025 the BLS issued massive adjustments that created a sea of red in the Employment levels, erasing millions of supposed jobs in 2023 and 2024, while January’s numbers actually increased slightly.

See Current Employment  for more information.

BLS: September 2025 Employment by Sector

The BLS employment “bubble chart” based on the Establishment Survey Data gives us a good picture of the Seasonally Adjusted employment numbers.

The Bubble’s Size tells us the total Employment for that industry (i.e., larger bubbles mean more people are employed in that sector).

The bubble’s location on the chart tells us that there has been a change in Employment Levels over the most recent month… A bubble further to the right indicates larger job growth. A bubble’s vertical location on the chart shows the average industry salary.

Remember, these are Seasonally Adjusted Numbers, so they aren’t cumulative!

Looking at the above chart, we can see that five sectors were below zero (i.e., left of the zero line -lost workers).

BLS Average Weekly Wages

BLS Employment and Average Weekly Earnings by Industry

September 2025, Seasonally Adjusted Employment

Note that due to “seasonal adjusting,” although they may claim that there was a “monthly increase” (or decrease), there isn’t always an actual increase; you can’t just subtract last month’s “employment level” from this month’s level. For instance, Mining and Logging was supposedly down by -3,000 in September. But August was 609,000 and September was 610,000, which looks like +1,000, not -3,000.  So, we can conclude that Mining and Logging typically would be up 4,000 in September, but since it was only up 1,000 in Seasonally Adjusted terms it is down -3,000 from where it should be.

Source: BLS

ADP^® National Employment Report

ADP provides an independent (non-government) estimate of private-sector employment and pay, based on data derived from ADP client payrolls. According to ADP®, In collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The numbers are released a few days before the BLS numbers and are often quite different.

Note: ADP is NOT a Government Agency, so they weren’t shut down; therefore, their data is for October, not September.

Private employers added 42,000 jobs in October

• Last month delivered a rebound from two months of weak hiring, but the bounce wasn’t broad-based. (Education and Health care), and (Trade, Transportation, and Utilities) led the growth. For the third straight month, employers shed jobs in Professional Business Services, Information, and (Leisure and Hospitality).

Source: ADP®

ADP Private Employment by Establishment Size

ADP Changes:

ADP Job Gainers / Losers

Labor Force Participation Rate

The LFPR is up from 62.3% to 62.4%.

The Labor Force Participation Rate is the percentage of the Non-Institutional Population that makes up the Labor Force.

And the Employment – Population Ratio is the percentage of the Total Population that is Employed.  We created a chart to help explain the difference. The Employment–Population Ratio is the percentage of the largest circle to the smallest circle in this diagram. While the LFPR is the relationship of the 2nd largest circle to the 3rd largest circle (entire green circle).

Less Than Full Employment

This chart compares employment levels with the (inverted) unemployment rate.

Full Employment is when everyone who wants a job has one. It is generally considered to be around 3%. After the unemployment rate almost touched the magic full employment line in April 2023, it began moving away (i.e., higher unemployment).

Note: The Unemployment rate is inverted to track the employment rate. Neither is Seasonally Adjusted. For more information see Employment vs. Unemployment.

Note: Full employment is not considered to be at zero percent because even when employers are having difficulty finding employees, some people are still unemployed due to either:

1. structural unemployment (mismatch between worker skills and job requirements, i.e., not enough training) or
2. frictional unemployment There will always be people who have quit or have lost a seasonal job and are in the process of getting a new job. Or Simply because they quit their job knowing it would be easy to find another (hopefully better) job.

Seasonally Adjusted U1 through U6 Unemployment Rates

Employment-Population Ratio

By Gender

This chart shows the Employment-Population Ratio by Gender. Men make up a much larger portion of the workforce, i.e., 67.6% of men are employed, and only 56.1% of women are employed. But…

As you can see, 20 years ago, back in 2005, over 72% of men were working and 57.8% of women were working. In 2008, the Great Recession caused a massive decline in employment for both men and women. By December of 2009, only 66.4% of men were working and 55.4% of women.

By Race

Duration of Unemployment

Over the last few months, the duration of unemployment has been increasing (i.e., those unemployed for 27 weeks or longer had been rising), but in September the green line turned down.

Unemployed 27 Weeks or Longer

We can see the decline a bit more clearly in this chart.

Read more on UnemploymentData.com.