Unemployment Rate in the United States increased to 4.30 percent in August from 4.20 percent in July 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.

The seasonally-adjusted national unemployment rate is measured on a monthly basis in the United States. In June 2025, the national unemployment rate was at 4.1 percent. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical method of removing the seasonal component of a time series that is used when analyzing non-seasonal trends.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate - 20 Yrs. & over (LNU04000024) from Jan 1948 to Aug 2025 about 20 years +, unemployment, rate, and USA.

This layer contains the latest 14 months of unemployment statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The data is offered at the nationwide, state, and county geography levels. Puerto Rico is included. These are not seasonally adjusted values. The layer is updated monthly with the newest unemployment statistics available from BLS. There are attributes in the layer that specify which month is associated to each statistic. Most current month: July 2025 (preliminary values at the state and county level) The attributes included for each month are:Unemployment rate (%)Count of unemployed populationCount of employed population in the labor forceCount of people in the labor forceData obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data downloaded: August 27, 2025Local Area Unemployment Statistics table download: https://www.bls.gov/lau/#tablesLocal Area Unemployment FTP downloads:State and County NationData Notes:This layer is updated automatically when the BLS releases their most current monthly statistics. The layer always contains the most recent estimates. It is updated within days of the BLS"s county release schedule. BLS releases their county statistics roughly 2 months after-the-fact. The data is joined to 2023 TIGER boundaries from the U.S. Census Bureau.Monthly values are subject to revision over time.For national values, employed plus unemployed may not sum to total labor force due to rounding.As of the January 2022 estimates released on March 18th, 2022, BLS is reporting new data for the two new census areas in Alaska - Copper River and Chugach - and historical data for the previous census area - Valdez Cordova. As of the March 17th, 2025 release, BLS now reports data for 9 planning regions in Connecticut rather than the 8 previous counties. To better understand the different labor force statistics included in this map, see the diagram below from BLS:

In 1990, the unemployment rate of the United States stood at 5.6 percent. Since then there have been many significant fluctuations to this number - the 2008 financial crisis left millions of people without work, as did the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of 2022 and throughout 2023, the unemployment rate came to 3.6 percent, the lowest rate seen for decades. However, 2024 saw an increase up to four percent. For monthly updates on unemployment in the United States visit either the monthly national unemployment rate here, or the monthly state unemployment rate here. Both are seasonally adjusted. UnemploymentUnemployment is defined as a situation when an employed person is laid off, fired or quits his work and is still actively looking for a job. Unemployment can be found even in the healthiest economies, and many economists consider an unemployment rate at or below five percent to mean there is 'full employment' within an economy. If former employed persons go back to school or leave the job to take care of children they are no longer part of the active labor force and therefore not counted among the unemployed. Unemployment can also be the effect of events that are not part of the normal dynamics of an economy. Layoffs can be the result of technological progress, for example when robots replace workers in automobile production. Sometimes unemployment is caused by job outsourcing, due to the fact that employers often search for cheap labor around the globe and not only domestically. In 2022, the tech sector in the U.S. experienced significant lay-offs amid growing economic uncertainty. In the fourth quarter of 2022, more than 70,000 workers were laid off, despite low unemployment nationwide. The unemployment rate in the United States varies from state to state. In 2021, California had the highest number of unemployed persons with 1.38 million out of work.

United States - Unemployment Rate was 4.30% in August of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Unemployment Rate reached a record high of 14.80 in April of 2020 and a record low of 2.50 in May of 1953. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Unemployment Rate - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on October of 2025.

In December 2024, Nevada had the highest unemployment rate in the United States, with an unemployment rate of 5.7. The unemployment rate was also high in the District of Columbia, with an unemployment rate of 5.6 percent in December. Unemployment in the U.S. A person is considered unemployed if they have no job and are currently looking for a job and available to work. The unemployment rate in the United States varies across states. Nation-wide unemployment was 3.4 percent as of April 2023. Unemployment can be affected by various factors including economic conditions and global competition. During economic prosperity, unemployment rates generally decrease and during times of recession, rates increase. The seasons can also have an impact on the unemployment rate, especially during winter, when there is lower demand for construction workers or other professionals who typically work outdoors. The retail sector also experiences fluctuating demand for workers, particularly during the holiday-shopping season, when demand for workers increases. For this reason, labor statistics are usually presented as being either seasonally adjusted or unadjusted. The data presented in this statistic have been seasonally adjusted, but the monthly unadjusted unemployment rate can be accessed here.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate - 30-34 Yrs. (LNU04024933) from Jan 1981 to Aug 2025 about 30 to 34 years, unemployment, rate, and USA.

The employment and unemployment indicator shows several data points. The first figure is the number of people in the labor force, which includes the number of people who are either working or looking for work. The second two figures, the number of people who are employed and the number of people who are unemployed, are the two subcategories of the labor force. The unemployment rate is a calculation of the number of people who are in the labor force and unemployed as a percentage of the total number of people in the labor force.

The unemployment rate does not include people who are not employed and not in the labor force. This includes adults who are neither working nor looking for work. For example, full-time students may choose not to seek any employment during their college career, and are thus not considered in the unemployment rate. Stay-at-home parents and other caregivers are also considered outside of the labor force, and therefore outside the scope of the unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate is a key economic indicator, and is illustrative of economic conditions in the county at the individual scale.

There are additional considerations to the unemployment rate. Because it does not count those who are outside the labor force, it can exclude individuals who were looking for a job previously, but have since given up. The impact of this on the overall unemployment rate is difficult to quantify, but it is important to note because it shows that no statistic is perfect.

The unemployment rates for Champaign County, the City of Champaign, and the City of Urbana are extremely similar between 2000 and 2023.

All three areas saw a dramatic increase in the unemployment rate between 2006 and 2009. The unemployment rates for all three areas decreased overall between 2010 and 2019. However, the unemployment rate in all three areas rose sharply in 2020 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unemployment rate in all three areas dropped again in 2021 as pandemic restrictions were removed, and were almost back to 2019 rates in 2022. However, the unemployment rate in all three areas rose slightly from 2022 to 2023.

This data is sourced from the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), and from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Sources: Illinois Department of Employment Security, Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Employment Rate in the United States remained unchanged at 59.60 percent in August. This dataset provides - United States Employment Rate- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

This map shows how unemployment has changed in the US over the past month. This can be seen by counties within this map. The map shows if a county's unemployment has increased or decreased, and by how much. The map always represents the most current figures offered by BLS, and updates automatically. To see the most current month offered by BLS, find the CurrentMonth attribute in the data table, or visit the metadata for the Living Atlas layer used in this map.Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):https://www.bls.gov/Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS):https://www.bls.gov/lau/Click here to view a map showing the change in unemployment rate.

U.S. Unemployment Rate - Historical chart and current data through 2025.

This map shows how the unemployment rate has changed in the US over the past year. This can be seen by counties within this map. The map shows if a county's unemployment rate has increased or decreased, and the size of the circles shows by how much. The colors are then shown with transparency behind the centroid to reinforce the pattern in areas where the change may have been smaller. The map always represents the most current figures offered by BLS, and updates automatically. To see the most current month offered by BLS, find the CurrentMonth attribute in the data table, or visit the metadata for the Living Atlas layer used in this map.Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):https://www.bls.gov/Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS):https://www.bls.gov/lau/

This map shows unemployment rates in the US by county and state based on the most current figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The map highlights the pattern based on if the rates are considered relatively recessionary, which are any figures 5.5% or above. These are shown in dark brown, and are emphasized in comparison to the other data values. All other data values are given some transparency and are less prominent on the map. These breaks are based roughly on figures from a 2006 article from the Richmond Fed, which talks about the Phillips curve. The Phillips curve shows a general negative relationship between inflation and unemployment rates, helping us better understand the overall health of the economy. The pop-up helps explain the unemployment figures, and shows a graph of the last 14 months of unemployment in the US by each county and state. The data is offered at the nationwide, state, and county geography levels. Puerto Rico is included. These are not seasonally adjusted values.The map always represents the most current figures offered by BLS, and updates automatically. To see the most current month offered by BLS, click on a pop-up. You can also find the CurrentMonth attribute in the layer's data table, or visit the the Living Atlas layer used in this map.Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):https://www.bls.gov/Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS):https://www.bls.gov/lau/

Initial Jobless Claims in the United States decreased to 218 thousand in the week ending September 20 of 2025 from 232 thousand in the previous week. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Initial Jobless Claims - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Context

This is a dataset that I built by scraping the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. I was looking for county-level unemployment data and realized that there was a data source for this, but the data set itself hadn't existed yet, so I decided to write a scraper and build it out myself.

Content

This data represents the Local Area Unemployment Statistics from 1990-2016, broken down by state and month. The data itself is pulled from this mapping site:

https://data.bls.gov/map/MapToolServlet?survey=la&map=county&seasonal=u

Further, the ever-evolving and ever-improving codebase that pulled this data is available here:

https://github.com/jayrav13/bls_local_area_unemployment

Acknowledgements

Of course, a huge shoutout to bls.gov and their open and transparent data. I've certainly been inspired to dive into US-related data recently and having this data open further enables my curiosities.

Inspiration

I was excited about building this data set out because I was pretty sure something similar didn't exist - curious to see what folks can do with it once they run with it! A curious question I had was surrounding Unemployment vs 2016 Presidential Election outcome down to the county level. A comparison can probably lead to interesting questions and discoveries such as trends in local elections that led to their most recent election outcome, etc.

Next Steps

Version 1 of this is as a massive JSON blob, normalized by year / month / state. I intend to transform this into a CSV in the future as well.

Youth unemployment stood at 9.7 percent in February 2025. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical method for removing the seasonal component of a time series that is used when analyzing non-seasonal trends. The unemployment rate by state can be found here, and the annual national unemployment rate can be found here. Youth unemployment in the United States The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics track unemployment of persons between the ages of 16 and 24 years each month. In analyzing the data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics performed a seasonal adjustment—removing seasonal influences from the time series, such that one month’s rate of unemployment could be analyzed in comparison with another month’s rate of unemployment. During the period in question, youth unemployment ranged from a high of 9.9 percent in April 2021, to a low of 6.5 percent in April 2023. The national youth unemployment rate can be compared to the monthly national unemployment rate in the United States, although youth unemployment tends to be much higher due to higher rates of participation in education. In May 2023, U.S. unemployment was at 3.7 percent, compared with 7.4 percent amongst those 16 to 24 years old. Additionally, as of May 2023, Nevada had the highest state unemployment rate of all U.S. states, at 5.4 percent.

In 2024, six percent of the Black or African-American population in the United States were unemployed, the highest unemployment rate of any ethnicity. In 2024, the national unemployment rate stood at four percent.

This map shows how unemployment has changed in the US over the past year. This can be seen by counties within this map. The map shows if a county's unemployment has increased or decreased, and by how much. The map always represents the most current figures offered by BLS, and updates automatically. To see the most current month offered by BLS, find the CurrentMonth attribute in the data table, or visit the metadata for the Living Atlas layer used in this map.Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):https://www.bls.gov/Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS):https://www.bls.gov/lau/Click here to view a map showing the change in unemployment rate.

United States - Unemployment Rate - 20 Yrs. & over was 4.00% in August of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Unemployment Rate - 20 Yrs. & over reached a record high of 14.20 in April of 2020 and a record low of 2.20 in June of 1953. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Unemployment Rate - 20 Yrs. & over - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on October of 2025.