The frictional unemployment rate is 3 percent
March 19, 2018 at 3:00 a.m. PDT accounts for discrimination and is a reasonable proxy for the true level of frictional unemployment in the economy. The white college graduate unemployment rate was 1.7 percent during the late 1990s, the the (actual) unemployment rate is greater than the natural unemployment rate. The frictional unemployment rate is 2.5 percent, the structural unemployment rate is 3.1 percent, and the current unemployment rate (in the economy) is 5.6. Frictional unemployment is unavoidable. The good news is that it's usually short-term. It's one of the components of natural unemployment. It is the lowest rate of unemployment in a growing economy. Unemployment below that level means employers can't find enough workers to keep producing all they can. It slows economic growth.