How to Calculate Labor Force

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes labor force data on a monthly basis. BLS obtains labor statistics from surveys conducted by the Census Bureau. A sample of civilian non-institutional population consisting of 60,000 households that represents the United States is used as the control group for the survey. Unemployment duration is the length of time an individual is continuously looking for work while classified as unemployed.

• 1

  Calculate the total number of people actively seeking employment. Exclude people under 16 and over the retirement age. Include people that have been participating in a job search after leaving their last job or within the last year.

• 2

  Calculate the total number of people that can be classified as employed. Include both entrepreneurs and employees. Include everyone temporarily absent from a place of employment. Count multiple job holders or dual-citizenship holders only once.

• 3

  Add the numbers obtained in the previous steps to get the total labor force number.