The unemployment rate has been 7.5 percent or higher for 54 straight months, coincidentally since President Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, CNSNews.com reports. It is the first time that the unemployment rate has ever stayed at 7.5 percent or higher for that long ever since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began calculating the national unemployment rate in 1948.
The BLS reported on Friday that the seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate for June was 7.6 percent, keeping the streak alive.
US President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks during a town hall style meeting at the University of Johannesburg Soweto in Johannesburg, South Africa, on June 29, 2013. US President Barack Obama met the family of his 'inspiration' Nelson Mandela but was unable to visit the anti-apartheid legend who remains critically ill in hospital. Credit: AFP/Getty Images
The unemployment rate was 7.3 percent in December 2008, the month after Obama was fired elected and the month before he was inaugurated. In the first month of 2009, the rate jumped to 7.8 percent – and it never came back down below 7.5 percent.
CNSNews.com has more details:
In the Obama era, the unemployment rate peaked at 10.0 percent in October 2010. It did not dip below 9 percent until October 2011, when it hit 8.9 percent. From August to September 2012, it dropped from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent—the first time during Obama’s tenure it went under 8 percent.Since then, the lowest it has gone has been 7.5 percent—the rate it hit in April. But after April, it ticked back up to 7.6 percent in May and stayed at 7.6 percent in June.
Prior to Obama’s presidency, the longest stretch of national unemployment at 7.5 percent or higher, as reported by the BLS, was 32 months from September 1981 through April 1984. From August 1981 to September 1981, unemployment climbed from 7.4 percent to 7.6 percent. It then stayed above 7.5 percent until April 1984, when it was at 7.7 percent. In May 1984, it dropped to 7.4 percent.
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