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Unemployment rate in May 2009

June 09, 2009

The number of unemployed persons increased by 787,000 to 14.5 million in May, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.4 percent. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 7.0 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 4.5 percentage points.

Unemployment rate, May 2008-May 2009
[Chart data—TXT]

Unemployment rates rose in May for adult men (9.8 percent), adult women (7.5 percent), whites (8.6 percent), and Hispanics (12.7 percent). The jobless rates for teenagers (22.7 percent) and blacks (14.9 percent) were little changed over the month.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 732,000 in May to 9.5 million. This group has increased by 5.8 million since the start of the recession.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 268,000 over the month to 3.9 million and has tripled since the start of the recession.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted. More information can be found in "The Employment Situation: May 2009" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 09-0588.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Unemployment rate in May 2009 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2009/jun/wk2/art02.htm (visited March 19, 2024).

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