Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Unemployment rate at 5.8 percent in May

June 11, 2002

The number of unemployed persons (8.4 million) and the unemployment rate (5.8 percent) were little changed over the month. The May unemployment rate is 1.9 percentage points above its most recent low of 3.9 percent in October 2000, and the number of unemployed persons is 2.8 million higher.

Unemployed 27 weeks and over as a share of total unemployed, May 2001-May 2002 (seasonally adjusted)
[Chart data—TXT]

The number of long-term unemployed persons—those unemployed 27 weeks or longer—rose by 142,000 in May, following increases of similar size in March and April. This measure has increased by about 1 million persons over the past 12 months.

These data are a product of the Current Population Survey. The above figures are seasonally adjusted. Find out more in "The Employment Situation: May 2002," news release USDL 02-332.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Unemployment rate at 5.8 percent in May at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2002/jun/wk2/art02.htm (visited March 28, 2024).

OF INTEREST
spotlight
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics


triangle