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    Track the US labor market from released data

    Follow payrolls, unemployment, jobless claims and wage growth from FRED, with the Sahm rule reading and trend versus the prior year.

    Is the labor market weakening?

    Labor conditions are read from nonfarm payroll growth, the unemployment rate, weekly initial claims and wage growth. The Sahm rule flags recession risk when the 3-month average unemployment rate rises 0.5 points above its low of the prior 12 months.

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    Labor research case with revisions and monitoring conditions, built from the details above and saved to your account in External Conditions.

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    Method

    • — Series: PAYEMS, UNRATE, ICSA, CES0500000003 (average hourly earnings).
    • — Sahm reading = 3-month average UNRATE − minimum 3-month average over the prior 12 months.
    • — Claims trend: 4-week average versus the same period a year earlier.

    Limits

    Payrolls are revised for two months and annually; the latest print is preliminary.

    Updated 2026-10-15

    Questions

    What is the Sahm rule?
    A real-time recession indicator by economist Claudia Sahm, triggered at a 0.5-point rise as described above.