On May 19, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the 2025 Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) annual average data by county. While this new data DOES NOT affect the designation of EB-5 rural areas, the updated unemployment rates have impacted the qualification of High Unemployment Areas (HUAs) across the country.
IIUSA has already updated its online EB-5 TEA Mapping Tool to reflect the latest 2025 1-year LAUS data, which is combined with the 2020–2024 ACS 5-year estimates through the census-share methodology. All EB-5 stakeholders are encouraged to visit the updated mapping tool and review the HUA qualification status of their EB-5 projects under the latest data.
National Unemployment Rate Trend
According to the 2025 1-year LAUS data, the national unemployment rate increased to 4.3%, resulting in the HUA threshold increasing to 6.5% under the LAUS data. Figure 1 below illustrates the year-over-year trends in the national average unemployment rate based on both LAUS annual averages and ACS 5-year estimates.
Changes in High Unemployment Areas (HUAs)
Based on the latest 2025 1-year LAUS unemployment data, combined with the 2020–2024 ACS data through the census-share methodology, more than 38,800 census tracts across the 50 states and the District of Columbia qualify as HUAs. Compared with the previous 2024 LAUS annual data, our analysis found that more than 5,600 census tracts have been added to the HUA list, while more than 6,600 census tracts have lost their HUA qualification under the updated LAUS data.
Table 1 below summarizes the number of HUA census tracts under the latest 2025 LAUS annual estimates and provides a comparison with the prior 2024 1-year data.
All EB-5 stakeholders are encouraged to visit our interactive EB-5 TEA Mapping Tool and review how the updated data has impacted their EB-5 projects.
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