For which month will the US next report the civilian unemployment rate (U3) at 4.8% or higher?

Started Aug 15, 2025 05:00PM UTC
Closing Dec 01, 2026 08:01AM UTC

Signs of slowing in the US economy come amid questions about the accuracy of unemployment and jobs data published by the federal government (CNN, Yahoo [Fortune]). The question will be suspended on 30 November 2026 if still open and the outcome determined using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS') official civilian unemployment rate (U3) as reported by the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database when released (FRED). The first revision announced by BLS after its initial reporting of the unemployment rate will count (e.g., if BLS reports 4.6% for November 2025, and subsequently revises the rate for November 2025 to 4.9% when it releases its first revisions with its December 2025 data release, the question will close as of the end of November 2025). Second revisions are immaterial (e.g., revisions announced for May in a release of July data). However, the question will close "No" if the unemployment rate is not reported at 4.8% or higher for the first release of data for November 2026. As of the launch of this question, the US civilian unemployment rate was last reported to be at or above 4.8% in August 2021.

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Possible Answer Crowd Forecast Change in last 24 hours Change in last week Change in last month
Before December 2025 3.50% 0% 0% -0.30%
Between December 2025 and March 2026 13.90% 0% 0% +0.30%
Between April 2026 and July 2026 13.60% 0% 0% -5.90%
Between August 2026 and November 2026 30.60% 0% 0% +0.90%
Not before December 2026 38.40% 0% 0% +5.00%

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