Chart: Unemployment rate over the past 13 months

RP news wires, Noria Corporation

The number of unemployed persons increased by 563,000 to 13.7 million in April, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent, according to data supplied by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 6.0 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 3.9 percentage points.

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

Unemployment rates rose in April for adult men (9.4 percent) and blacks (15.0 percent). The jobless rates for adult women (7.1 percent), teenagers (21.5 percent), whites (8.0 percent), and Hispanics (11.3 percent) were little changed over the month.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 571,000 in April to 8.8 million. This group has more than doubled in size over the past 12 months.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 498,000 to 3.7 million over the month and has risen by 2.4 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.

This data is from the Current Population Survey and is seasonally adjusted. More information can be found in "The Employment Situation: April 2009," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 09-0482.

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