Broad Measure of U.S. Jobless Rate Only Slowly Improving: Chart

(Bloomberg) -- Despite the lowest unemployment rate in a decade, a broader measure of joblessness has been much slower to fall. The widely followed jobless rate (U-3) sits at 4.4 percent, and is forecast to hold there when the government issues its May jobs report on Friday. The so-called underemployment rate (U-6), which includes all unemployed persons plus those marginally attached or working part-time for economic reasons as a share of the labor force, sits at 8.6 percent. While the ratio has been leveling off, it is higher in this expansion than in the past.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vince Golle in Washington at vgolle@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Lanman at slanman@bloomberg.net, Jerry Laird

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