U.S. unemployment rate: seasonally adjusted May 2021

The seasonally-adjusted national unemployment rate is measured on a monthly basis in the United States. In May 2021, the national unemployment rate was at 5.5 percent. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical method of removing the seasonal component of a time series that is used when analyzing non-seasonal trends.

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 2019. A trend of decreasing unemployment followed after a high in 2010 resulting from the 2008 financial crisis. However, it rose again to 8.1 percent in 2020.

Additional statistics from the BLS paint an interesting picture of unemployment in the United States. In April 2020, the state with the highest (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate was Hawaii followed by California and New Mexico. Unemployment was the lowest in New Hampshire and Nebraska at 2.8 percent. Workers in the leisure and hospitality industry suffered the highest unemployment rate of any industry at 10.1 percent as of May 2021 (not seasonally adjusted).