About This Statistic
This statistic displays the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the United States on a monthly basis. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical method of removing the seasonal component of a time series that is used when analyzing non-seasonal trends. National unemployment was at 4.4 percent in August 2017.
U.S. monthly unemployment rate
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—the principle fact-finding agency for the U.S. Federal Government in labor economics and statistics—unemployment declined from 2010 to 2016. Unemployment fell from 8.20 percent in July 2012 to 4.7 percent in December 2016. Unemployment decreased from 2015 to 2016, following a trend of decreasing unemployment since a high in 2010 resulting from the 2008 financial crisis.
Additional statistics from the BLS paint an interesting picture of unemployment in the United States. In March 2017, the state with the highest (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate was New Mexico with a 6.7 percent unemployment rate, followed by Alaska and Louisiana. Unemployment was lowest in New Hampshire at 2.80 percent. Workers in the Construction industry suffered the highest unemployment rate of any industry at 8.4 percent as of March 2017 (not seasonally adjusted), followed by workers in the Agriculture industry with a rate of 7.7 percent. Youth unemployment (individuals between 16 and 24 years of age) had a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 9.4 percent in April 2017.
