You see in the news that the unemployment rate is down to 5%. But what does that mean? The answer is complicated, but a good place to start to get a handle on it is at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website at:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
The headline rate they report is what they call U-3, which excludes people who may have a part time job but want full time work. The broadest measure of unemployment is U-6 (I asked my friend Russ if he knew what U-6 was, he quipped “A rock band 3 times as good as U2?”).
Movements in unemployment is a key driver in the economy. If want to understand how that’s changing, the BLS website will help.