The seasonally-adjusted national unemployment rate is measured on a monthly basis in the United States. In July 2023, the national unemployment rate was at 3.5 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 decreased dramatically between 2010 to 2019. This trend of decreasing unemployment followed after a high in 2010 resulting from the 2008 financial crisis. However, after a smaller financial crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic unemployment reached 8.1 percent in 2020. As the economy recovered the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 in 2021, and fell even further in 2022.
Additional statistics from the BLS paint an interesting picture of unemployment in the United States. In March 2023, the states with the highest (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate were the Nevada and the District of Columbia. Unemployment was the lowest in South Dakota at 1.9 percent. Workers in the leisure and hospitality industry suffered the highest unemployment rate of any industry at 5.2 percent in May 2023.
