Chart: Unemployment rate by month since January 2008

In May, the number of unemployed persons was 15.0 million. The unemployment rate edged down to 9.7 percent, the same rate as in the first three months of 2010.

[Chart data]

In May, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was about unchanged at 6.8 million. These individuals made up 46.0 percent of unemployed persons, about the same as in April.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons declined by 343,000 in May to 8.8 million. These individuals, sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

There were 1.1 million discouraged workers in May, up by 291,000 from a year earlier (not seasonally adjusted). Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.

This data is from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation—May 2010" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-0748.