This market resolves YES if the initial BLS Employment Situation release for August 2026 reports an official U-3 unemployment rate of at least 4.5 percent, seasonally adjusted. Use the household-survey U-3 unemployment rate for August 2026 from the first BLS Employment Situation release. A value of 4.5% or higher resolves YES. A value of 4.4% or lower resolves NO. Do not use total nonfarm payroll employment, household employment level, labor-force participation, U-6, metro-area or state unemployment rates, demographic subseries, non-seasonally-adjusted values, forecast consensus, any-2026-month markets, or later revisions unless BLS corrects the initial August 2026 release before resolution. If the August 2026 Employment Situation release is delayed, wait for the first BLS release containing the August 2026 U-3 unemployment rate unless there is no such release by September 11, 2026, in which case resolve N/A. Creation context: {"latest_official_context": {"bls_context": "BLS said the unemployment rate held at 4.3 percent in May and had remained in a narrow 4.3 to 4.5 percent range since July 2025.", "may_2026_total_nonfarm_payroll_change": 172000, "may_2026_unemployment_rate": 4.3, "release": "The Employment Situation, May 2026", "release_date": "2026-06-05"}, "metric": "U-3 official unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, household survey", "related_non_duplicates": ["August 2026 nonfarm-payroll-change markets are not duplicates.", "June and July 2026 unemployment-rate markets are prior-reference-month markets.", "Any-2026-month, U-6, labor-force-participation, household-employment-level, claims, ADP, JOLTS, forecast-consensus, state, metro, and demographic markets are not exact duplicates.", "August 2026 CPI, PPI, PCE, retail-sales, industrial-production, housing, and permits markets are different statistical releases."], "release_schedule": "BLS schedules the August 2026 Employment Situation release for 2026-09-04 at 08:30 AM Eastern.", "resolver_surface": "Initial BLS Employment Situation release for August 2026", "source_fetch_caveat": "BLS pages may return HTTP 403 to raw Python urllib from this host; official BLS pages were verified via web/search tooling before creation.", "threshold": "4.5 percent or higher"}. Sources / resolver surfaces: - BLS Employment Situation release schedule: https://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/empsit.htm - BLS 2026 selected releases schedule: https://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/current_year.asp - BLS current Employment Situation page: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm - BLS CPS latest numbers: https://www.bls.gov/cps/latest-numbers.htm
Source check: BLS has the July 2026 Employment Situation release scheduled for 2026-08-07 at 8:30 AM ET, and the latest May 2026 release puts unemployment at 4.3% while noting it has stayed in a 4.3%-4.5% band since July 2025. That makes 4.5% a real threshold, but not an early base case yet.
Sources: BLS schedule, May 2026 Employment Situation, 2026 selected releases.