That’s a plea from an X post a year ago. He presented various calculations (which are hard to replicate, because he does funny things like mixing CES numbers and CPS numbers), but indeed BLS calculates such a series: the U6 unemployment rate, which contrary to his assertion, economists are aware of. I will follow up on citing this series, even if Dr. Antoni has not in the past eight months.
Figure 1: Total Unemployed, Plus All Persons Marginally Attached to the Labor Force, Plus Total Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons, as a Percent of the Civilian Labor Force Plus All Persons Marginally Attached to the Labor Force (U-6), % s.a. (tan). Source: BLS via FRED.
I do not believe Dr. Antoni has mentioned this alternative series in the past eight months.
For context, here’re U6 vs U3 (“official”) unemployment rates.
Figure 2: Total Unemployed, Plus All Persons Marginally Attached to the Labor Force, Plus Total Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons, as a Percent of the Civilian Labor Force Plus All Persons Marginally Attached to the Labor Force (U-6), (tan), unemployment rate (U-3), both in %, s.a. Source: BLS via FRED.
Maybe Dr. Antoni has eschewed focusing on this series because U6 has risen 0.3 (0.6) ppts while U3 has risen only 0.1 (0.3) bps over the past year (since January 2025).
