Key Economic Indicators
Unemployment Rates
Each month in the U.S., the federal government surveys 60,000 households to gather information on labor market activities. It uses the information from the survey to derive the number of unemployed persons in the U.S. The U.S. unemployment rate reached its highest level since 1995 in April 2002 (6.0%). Between April and September 2002, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped by 0.3% to 5.7%. The unemployment rate peaked at 6.4% in June of 2003, and has since fallen slightly to 6.1% in December 2003 and 5.5% in November 2004.
