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 four percent in January 2019.
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 2018. A trend of decreasing unemployment followed after a high in 2010 resulting from the 2008 financial crisis. Unemployment fell from 9.6 percent in 2010 to 3.9 percent in 2018.
Additional statistics from the BLS paint an interesting picture of unemployment in the United States. In December 2018, the state with the highest (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate was Alaska with a 6.3 percent unemployment rate, followed by the District of Columbia and West Virginia. Unemployment was the lowest in New Hampshire and Iowa at 2.5 percent and 2.4 percent respectively. Workers in the agricultural and related industries suffered the highest unemployment rate of any industry at 14.1 percent as of January 2019 (not seasonally adjusted).
