Historical Unemployment Rates in the United States Since 1948



The Bureau of Labor Statistics currently provides unemployment data from January 1st, 1948, right up until the present day.

If you need to look up national unemployment rates from a specific month and year, simply use the tool below.


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General data can be found below:

The highest rate for a single month is shared by November and December of 1982 with an unemployment rate of 10.8%

The year with the highest average unemployment rate was 1982 with an average unemployment rate of 9.71%

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The lowest rate for a single month is shared by May and June of 1953 with an unemployment rate of 2.5%

The year with the lowest average unemployment rate was 1953 with an average unemployment rate of 2.93%

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The most recent unemployment number was 3.7% as of 2018-11-01


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Unemployment Years Available:

1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014


Data Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics