With the collapse of the U.S. housing market and the subsequent financial crisis on Wall Street in 2007 and 2008, economies across the globe began to enter into deep recessions. What had started out as a crisis centered on the United States quickly became global in nature, as it became apparent that not only had the economies of other advanced countries (grouped together as the G7) become intimately tied to the U.S. financial system, but that many of them had experienced housing and asset price bubbles similar to that in the U.S.. The United Kingdom had experienced a huge inflation of housing prices since the 1990s, while Eurozone members (such as Germany, France and Italy) had financial sectors which had become involved in reckless lending to economies on the periphery of the EU, such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Other countries, such as Japan, were hit heavily due their export-led growth models which suffered from the decline in international trade. Unemployment during the Great Recession As business and consumer confidence crashed, credit markets froze, and international trade contracted, the unemployment rate in the most advanced economies shot up. While four to five percent is generally considered to be a healthy unemployment rate, nearing full employment in the economy (when any remaining unemployment is not related to a lack of consumer demand), many of these countries experienced rates at least double that, with unemployment in the United States peaking at almost 10 percent in 2010. In large countries, unemployment rates of this level meant millions or tens of millions of people being out of work, which led to political pressures to stimulate economies and create jobs. By 2012, many of these countries were seeing declining unemployment rates, however, in France and Italy rates of joblessness continued to increase as the Euro crisis took hold. These countries suffered from having a monetary policy which was too tight for their economies (due to the ECB controlling interest rates) and fiscal policy which was constrained by EU debt rules. Left with the option of deregulating their labor markets and pursuing austerity policies, their unemployment rates remained over 10 percent well into the 2010s. Differences in labor markets The differences in unemployment rates at the peak of the crisis (2009-2010) reflect not only the differences in how economies were affected by the downturn, but also the differing labor market institutions and programs in the various countries. Countries with more 'liberalized' labor markets, such as the United States and United Kingdom experienced sharp jumps in their unemployment rate due to the ease at which employers can lay off workers in these countries. When the crisis subsided in these countries, however, their unemployment rates quickly began to drop below those of the other countries, due to their more dynamic labor markets which make it easier to hire workers when the economy is doing well. On the other hand, countries with more 'coordinated' labor market institutions, such as Germany and Japan, experiences lower rates of unemployment during the crisis, as programs such as short-time work, job sharing, and wage restraint agreements were used to keep workers in their jobs. While these countries are less likely to experience spikes in unemployment during crises, the highly regulated nature of their labor markets mean that they are slower to add jobs during periods of economic prosperity.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate - 16-24 Yrs. (LNU04024887) from Jan 1948 to Jun 2025 about 16 to 24 years, unemployment, rate, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Real-time Sahm Rule Recession Indicator (SAHMREALTIME) from Dec 1959 to Jun 2025 about recession indicators, academic data, and USA.

This statistic shows, the impact of the recession on the unemployment rate in America by industry. Due to the recession, the unemployment rate increased from *** percent to *** percent in the education & health sector.

This statistic shows, the impact of the recession on the unemployment rate in America, by degree of education attained. Due to the recession, the unemployment rate of people who have a high school diploma increased from *** percent to **** percent.

ABSTRACT: This paper documents that the earnings cost of job loss is concentrated among workers who find reemployment in lower-skill occupations, and that the cost and incidence of such occupation displacement is higher for workers who lose their job during a recession. I propose a model where hiring is endogenously more selective during recessions, leading some unemployed workers to optimally search for reemployment in lower-skill jobs. The model accounts for existing estimates of the size and cyclicality of the present value cost of job loss, and the cost of entering the labor market during a recession.

In October 2024, the Sahm recession indicator was 0.43, a slight decrease from the previous month. The Sahm Rule was developed to flag the onset of an economic recession more quickly than other indicators. The Sahm Rule signals the start of a recession when the three-month moving average of the national unemployment rate rises by 0.50 percentage points or more relative to its low during the previous 12 months.

Graph and download economic data for Sahm Rule Recession Indicator (SAHMCURRENT) from Mar 1949 to Jun 2025 about recession indicators, academic data, and USA.

Unemployment Rate in the United States decreased to 4.10 percent in June from 4.20 percent in May of 2025. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

This release looks at the increase in unemployment during the recent economic downturn. Increases in unemployment will be compared across regions in the UK, age groups, gender and other characteristics. Claimant count data will also be included.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Unemployment during the economic downturn

We investigate the macroeconomic consequences of fluctuations in the effectiveness of the labor market matching process with a focus on the Great Recession. We conduct our analysis in the context of an estimated medium-scale dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with sticky prices and equilibrium search unemployment that features a shock to the matching efficiency (or mismatch shock). We find that this shock is not important for unemployment fluctuations in normal times. However, it plays a somewhat larger role during the Great Recession when it contributes to raise the actual unemployment rate by around 1.3 percentage points and the natural rate by around 2 percentage points. The mismatch shock is the dominant driver of the natural rate of unemployment and explains part of the recent shift of the Beveridge curve.

In 2023, it was estimated that over 161 million Americans were in some form of employment, while 3.64 percent of the total workforce was unemployed. This was the lowest unemployment rate since the 1950s, although these figures are expected to rise in 2023 and beyond. 1980s-2010s Since the 1980s, the total United States labor force has generally risen as the population has grown, however, the annual average unemployment rate has fluctuated significantly, usually increasing in times of crisis, before falling more slowly during periods of recovery and economic stability. For example, unemployment peaked at 9.7 percent during the early 1980s recession, which was largely caused by the ripple effects of the Iranian Revolution on global oil prices and inflation. Other notable spikes came during the early 1990s; again, largely due to inflation caused by another oil shock, and during the early 2000s recession. The Great Recession then saw the U.S. unemployment rate soar to 9.6 percent, following the collapse of the U.S. housing market and its impact on the banking sector, and it was not until 2016 that unemployment returned to pre-recession levels. 2020s 2019 had marked a decade-long low in unemployment, before the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic saw the sharpest year-on-year increase in unemployment since the Great Depression, and the total number of workers fell by almost 10 million people. Despite the continuation of the pandemic in the years that followed, alongside the associated supply-chain issues and onset of the inflation crisis, unemployment reached just 3.67 percent in 2022 - current projections are for this figure to rise in 2023 and the years that follow, although these forecasts are subject to change if recent years are anything to go by.

Data was collected from the FRED website.

Contains economic indicators often associated with recessions along with recession status data. Data collected on smallest time unit and earliest time date available for each indicator which results in many nulls but increased flexibility for the users of this dataset.

• recession: "1" recessionary period, "0" non-recessionary period (Monthly)
• cpi: CPI (1982-1984=INDEX 100) (Monthly)
• gdp: Real GDP Billions of Chained 2017 Dollars (Quarterly)
• unemployment: Unemployment Rate (Monthly)
• m2: M2 Billions of Dollars (Monthly)
• fed_funds: Federal Funds Rate (Monthly)
• ten_two: 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Minus 2-Year Treasury Constant Maturity (Monthly)
• residential: Real Residential Property Price Rate (Quarterly)

Comprehensive description of each variable can be found at https://fred.stlouisfed.org/

Sahm Recession Indicator signals the start of a recession when the three-month moving average of the national unemployment rate (U3) (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE) rises by 0.50 percentage points or more relative to the minimum of the three-month averages from the previous 12 months.

The PWSD is a dataset that can be used to answer questions about various public workforce system programs and how these programs fit in with the overall public workforce system and the economy. It was designed primarily to be used as a tool to understand what has been occurring in the Wagner-Peyser program and contains data from quarter 1 of 1995 through quarter 4 of 2008. Also, it was designed to understand the relationship and flow of participants as they go through the public workforce system. The PWSD can be used to analyze these programs both individually and in combination. The PWSD contains economic variables, Unemployment Insurance System data, and data on programs funded by the Workforce Investment Act and Employment Service. Economic variables included are labor force, employment, unemployment, unemployment rate, and gross domestic product data.

In his article with the provocative title ‘‘Are Recessions Good for Your Health?’’, Ruhm (J. Health Econ. 21(4) (2000) 659) has found robust and consistent evidence that the total mortality rate, age-specific mortality rates as well as most specific mortality causes are pro-cyclical. His finding that high unemployment rates are associated with lower mortality and vice versa stands in stark contrast to Brenner’s earlier work, who found the opposite effect, possibly after a time lag. Ruhm controls for state-specific effects in a panel of US states over the period 1972–1991, whereas Brenner’s work is based on time-series analysis. Extending and improving upon Ruhm’s original analysis, we analyse the effect of state unemployment and economic growth rates on mortality in the states of Germany over the period 1980–2000, both in a static and a dynamic econometric model. Controlling for state-specific effects, we find evidence that aggregate mortality rates for all age groups taken together as well as most specific age groups are lower in recessions. The same is true for mortality from cardiovascular diseases, pneumonia and influenza, motor vehicle accidents and suicides, but not for necessarily for other specific mortality causes. In particular, there is never a statistically significant effect on homicides, other external effects and malignant neoplasms. There are also few differences apparent between the effect on male and female mortality. If we do not control for state-specific effects, then we often arrive at the opposite result with higher unemployment being associated with higher mortality. This suggests that a failure to control for time-invariant state-specific effects leads to omitted variable bias, which would erroneously suggest that mortality rates move counter-cyclically. Overall, we can confirm Ruhm’s main finding for another country: recessions lower some, but not all, mortality rates in the case of Germany.

Within a search and matching model with risk-averse workers, endogenous hiring and separation, and unobservable search effort, we show how to decentralize the constrained-efficient allocation by a combination of a production tax and three labor-market policy instruments: vacancy subsidies, layoff taxes, and unemployment benefits. We derive analytical expressions for the optimal mix of these over the business cycle. Calibrating the model to the US economy under the assumption that wages are rigid, we find that hiring subsidies and layoff taxes should rise considerably and persistently in recessions. The optimal variation in unemployment benefits, in contrast, is quantitatively small and short-lived. (JEL E24, E32, J24, J63, J64, J65)

This survey was undertaken to assess consumer sentiment and buying plans, as well as unemployment, travel, long-distance telephone calls, and attitudes toward proposed anti-recession measures. Open-ended questions were asked concerning evaluations and expectations about price changes, employment, recession, and the national business situation. Information was elicited on the number of people then working who had been laid off intermittently in the past year or who were working shorter hours or who had lost their jobs. Questions were also asked about how families whose income had been reduced by unemployment or by shorter hours had managed financially, and what might stimulate business and reduce unemployment. Respondents were also asked about their plans for future travels, travel experiences, and overseas travel preferences, and their reactions to the introduction of jet planes for commercial use. Additional variables probe respondents' telephone usage and the effects of the recession on their use of telephones for long-distance calls. Data are also provided on respondents buying intentions for a house, automobiles, appliances, and other consumer durables, as well as their appraisals of present market conditions for purchasing these items. Demographic variables provide information on age, race, sex, marital status, education, occupation, religion, and family income. A supplementary sample of 122 respondents, consisting of a specially selected Detroit unemployment sample, is available upon request only.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate - 20 Yrs. & over, Black or African American Women (LNS14000032) from Jan 1972 to May 2025 about 20 years +, females, African-American, household survey, unemployment, rate, and USA.

We test whether age discrimination rises during recessions using two complementary analyses. Confidential EEOC microdata reveal that age-related firing and hiring charges rise by 3.3% and 1.6%, respectively, for each percentage point increase in a state-industry’s monthly unemployment. Though the opportunity cost of filing falls, the fraction of meritorious claims increases—a sufficient condition for rising discrimination under plausible assumptions. Second, we repurpose data from hiring correspondence studies conducted across different cities and time periods during the recovery from the Great Recession. Each percentage point increase in local unemployment reduces the callback rate for older versus younger women by 15%.*This repository includes the (non-proprietary) data and programs used to generate the analysis for the manuscript, "Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle." Instructions for how to apply for access to confidential EEOC microdata are included.*