From my US and Economics blog.
The data for October 2012 – the last “big” data release before the election — are now available on the Bureau of Labor Statistics web page and on a select basis as graphs on the St Louis Fed FRED database. Here I highlight employment to population, which avoids the “noise” that comes from people dropping in and out of the labor force. This measure also automatically adjusts to population growth (unlike overall employment measures) and, when disaggregated, is neutral to changes in the age composition of the population (e.g., the aging of the baby boomers).