Unemployment Rate at Record High 14.7%

The unemployment rate has reached 14.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This is the highest recorded unemployment rate since the metric began in January 1948. Previously, the highest unemployment rate in the United States was in 1982 at 10.82%.

Not long ago in January, the unemployment rate was 3.6%; the lowest the unemployment rate had been since December of 1969. But as 33.5 million people filed for unemployment over the past 7 weeks, 50-year lows turned to all time highs. However, this unemployment rate does not include the recent unemployment claims filed in the first week of May.

As States begin reopening their economies, workers who were furloughed are expected to return to work, bringing the rate down from such extremes, but still far from the previously-low rate.