US unemployment surged in 2020, then fell

Monthly unemployment rate · January 2019–December 2024

Unit: Share of the labor force (%)

Source credit: US Bureau of Labor Statistics · LNS14000000 · Retrieved 9 Sep 2026

Seasonally adjusted · Historical snapshot ending December 2024

Dates: 2019-01 to 2024-12. 72 rows; 1 series.

US unemployment: first observed 2019-01 = 4; last observed 2024-12 = 4.1.

Notes supplied by the chart author:

2019-01 · US unemployment: January 2019: 4.0% of the labor force was unemployed.

2020-04 · US unemployment: April 2020: 14.8%, the highest month in this displayed period.

2024-12 · US unemployment: December 2024: 4.1%. The spike had largely reversed.

Shaded: Spring 2020. Range dates are saved in project.json.

Zero is included on the vertical scale.

Dates keep their calendar spacing. Lines between observations are visual guides, not additional measurements. Blank cells are gaps.

Descriptions, note text and source credits must be checked by the publisher. Exporting does not verify a claim.

Reading composition: the extra footer note is provided here, rather than inside the image.

Original data matches the included US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, series LNS14000000 (seasonally adjusted unemployment rate), January 2019–December 2024. Retrieved 2026-09-09.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm
Method: All 72 monthly values from the API are retained in chronological order, without averaging or interpolation of missing observations. Monthly dates are positioned at the first day of each month. This is the published seasonally adjusted rate, not annual averages.
Limits: The unemployment rate is a share of the labor force, not of all residents. Seasonal adjustments can revise historical values. This deliberately historical example ends in 2024 and does not describe the current labor market. Connecting segments are visual guides, not daily observations.
Reuse: BLS numerical publications are public domain; BLS requests source credit.
https://www.bls.gov/bls/linksite.htm
Matching the data does not verify edited headlines or annotations.