# StationFX Unemployment Rate

> StationFX Unemployment Rate is a paid API for AI agents from stationfx.com, paid per call via x402, $0.005/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-02).

Returns the U.S. headline unemployment rate (BLS household survey) with derived statistics including MoM/YoY changes, z-scores, and trend indicators, monthly back to 1948.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://stationfx.com/economic-data/labor/unemployment-rate?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.005/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-02
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/stationfx-unemployment-rate-528e8441
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_CMWHjQ7bYesKtZOtbrLJa

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability stationfx-unemployment-rate-528e8441
```

Example prompt: Pull the U.S. headline unemployment rate from StationFX for the last 24 months and show me the month-over-month change and 5-year z-score for each observation in JSON format.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need the official U.S. headline unemployment rate (U-3) from the BLS household survey with pre-computed statistical context (z-scores, trend flags, rolling averages) rather than raw FRED data. Ideal for macro dashboards, recession scoring models, Fed policy analysis, or Phillips curve research where you want derived analytics alongside the raw series without computing them yourself. Prefer over generic FRED wrappers when monthly frequency and long history (back to 1948) with enriched statistics are required in a single call.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid date format returns error — dates must be YYYY-MM-DD
- date_from after date_to returns empty or error response
- Unsupported fmt value causes validation error
- Payment failure (402) if USDC balance insufficient
- Future dates beyond current month return no data or partial series

## How this service works

Share of the labor force actively looking for work. The headline unemployment rate from the BLS household survey. Use for labor market slack assessment, Phillips curve analysis, and recession identification. Monthly frequency, history back to 1948.

## Output

Returns an array of monthly observations each containing the raw unemployment rate value, month-over-month and year-over-year absolute and percentage changes, 12-month and 5-year z-scores, 5-year percentile rank, 3-month and 12-month rolling averages, and a binary flag indicating whether the value is above the long-run trend. Data covers from 1948 to present at monthly frequency.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http",
     "description": "Always \"http\" for HTTP endpoints"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string",
     "description": "HTTP method. Always GET for StationFX query endpoints"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "fmt": {
       "enum": [
        "json",
        "toon"
       ],
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Response format. Use toon for compact agent-friendly output."
      },
      "fields": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Comma-separated metric names"
      },
      "date_to": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "End date YYYY-MM-DD"
      },
      "date_from": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Start date YYYY-MM-DD"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "description": "Response format. Always \"json\" (or \"toon\" if fmt=toon was requested)"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "data": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
         "date": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Observation date YYYY-MM-DD"
         },
         "value": {
          "type": "number",
          "description": "Raw observed value in series units"
         },
         "mom_pct": {
          "type": "number",
          "description": "Month-over-month % change"
         },
         "yoy_pct": {
          "type": "number",
          "description": "Year-over-year % change"
         },
         "zscore_5y": {
          "type": "number",
          "description": "Z-score relative to trailing 5 years"
         },
         "mom_change": {
          "type": "number",
          "description": "Month-over-month absolute change"
         },
         "yoy_change": {
          "type": "number",
          "description": "Year-over-year absolute change"
         },
         "zscore_12m": {
          "type": "number",
          "description": "Z-score relative to trailing 12
… (truncated)
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "schema": {
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
   "data": {
    "type": "array",
    "items": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "date": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Observation date YYYY-MM-DD"
      },
      "value": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Raw observed value in series units"
      },
      "mom_pct": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Month-over-month % change"
      },
      "yoy_pct": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Year-over-year % change"
      },
      "zscore_5y": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Z-score relative to trailing 5 years"
      },
      "mom_change": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Month-over-month absolute change"
      },
      "yoy_change": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Year-over-year absolute change"
      },
      "zscore_12m": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Z-score relative to trailing 12 months"
      },
      "above_trend": {
       "type": "integer",
       "description": "1 if value is above long-run trend, else 0"
      },
      "pct_rank_5y": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Percentile rank over trailing 5 years (0-100)"
      },
      "rolling_3m_avg": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "3-month rolling average"
      },
      "rolling_12m_avg": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "12-month rolling average"
      },
      "trend_direction": {
       "type": "integer",
       "description": "Trend: 1 rising, -1 falling, 0 flat"
      }
     }
    },
    "description": "Observations ordered by date ascending"
   },
   "meta": {
    "type": "object",
    "description": "Series metadata: source_key (FRED series ID), units, frequency (D/W/M/Q/A), date_from, date_to, fields"
   }
  },
  "description": "Station f(x) response with metadata and pre-computed derived metrics"
 },
 "example": {
  "data": [
   {
    "date": "2024-01-01",
    "value": 5.33,
    "mom_pct": 0,
    "yoy_change": 0.5,
    "zscore_12m": 1.2,
    "trend_direction": 1
   }
  ],
  "meta": {
   "frequency": "M",
   "source_key": "UNRATE"
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/stationfx-unemployment-rate-528e8441/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from stationfx.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/stationfx.com/llms.txt)