The U-6 rate (unemployment) is sometimes referred to as the “real” unemployment rate.
The widely published official unemployment rate, U-3, only counts people who are currently unemployed and have been looking for work in the past four weeks.
The U-6 includes not only the unemployed, but also underemployed, “desperate” workers who have given up looking for work, and “marginalized” workers who have left the labor force but may return at some point.
Many economists consider U-6 to be the most telling indicator of a country’s employment situation.
Both the U-3 rate and the U-6 rate are published by the BLS in the monthly employment report, which is used by market watchers to gauge the health of the economy.