how to measure unemployment
the u s government uses surveys census counts and the number of unemployment insurance claims to track unemployment the u s census conducts a monthly survey called the current population survey cps on behalf of the bureau of labor statistics bls to produce the primary estimate of the nation s unemployment rate this survey has been done every month since 1940 1the sample consists of about 60 000 eligible households that translates to about 110 000 people each month the census changes a quarter of the sampled households each month so that no household is represented for more than four consecutive months this is meant to strengthen the reliability of the estimates 1many variations of the unemployment rate exist with different definitions of who is an unemployed person and who is in the labor force the bls commonly cites the u 3 unemployment rate defined as the total unemployed as a percentage of the civilian labor force as the official unemployment rate however this definition does not include discouraged unemployed workers who are no longer looking for work 3other categories of unemployment include discouraged workers and part time or underemployed workers who want to work full time but for economic reasons are unable to do so 4history of unemploymentalthough the u s government began tracking unemployment in the 1940s the highest rate of unemployment to date occurred during the great depression when unemployment rose to 24 9 in 1933 5between 1931 and 1940 the unemployment rate remained above 14 but subsequently dropped down to the single digits it remained there until 1982 when it climbed above 10 6in 2009 during the great recession unemployment again rose to 10 in april 2020 amid the covid 19 pandemic unemployment hit 14 8 as of june 2024 the unemployment rate was 4 1 7