<P> During the 1940s , the U.S Department of Labor , specifically the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( BLS ) , began collecting employment information via monthly household surveys . Other data series are available back to 1912 . The unemployment rate has varied from as low as 1 % during World War I to as high as 25 % during the Great Depression . More recently , it reached peaks of 10.8 % in November 1982 and 10.0 % in October 2009 . Unemployment tends to rise during recessions and fall during expansions . From 1948 to 2015 , unemployment averaged about 5.8 % . There is always some unemployment , with persons changing jobs and new entrants to the labor force searching for jobs . This is referred to as frictional unemployment . For this reason , the Federal Reserve targets the natural rate of unemployment or NAIRU , which was around 5 % in 2015 . A rate of unemployment below this level would be consistent with rising inflation in theory , as a shortage of workers would bid wages ( and thus prices ) upward . </P>
<P> During the 1940s , the U.S Department of Labor , specifically the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( BLS ) , began collecting employment information via monthly household surveys . Other data series are available back to 1912 . The unemployment rate has varied from as low as 1 % during World War I to as high as 25 % during the Great Depression . More recently , it reached peaks of 10.8 % in November 1982 and 10.0 % in October 2009 . Unemployment tends to rise during recessions and fall during expansions . From 1948 to 2015 , unemployment averaged about 5.8 % . There is always some unemployment , with persons changing jobs and new entrants to the labor force searching for jobs . This is referred to as frictional unemployment . For this reason , the Federal Reserve targets the natural rate of unemployment or NAIRU , which was around 5 % in 2015 . A rate of unemployment below this level would be consistent with rising inflation in theory , as a shortage of workers would bid wages ( and thus prices ) upward . </P>
during the us great depression the unemployment rate peaked at
during the us great depression the unemployment rate peaked at
25 %
25 %