Wages only

Benefits only

Wages and benefits

The amount receive in unemployment benefits

person working in a shopping mall

professor teaching economics at a community college

woman buying a computer

teen starting a babysitting cooperative

All for one and one for all.

Strike while the iron is hot.

Work expands to fill the time available.

Many hands make light work.

2000

2002

2006

2008

People who have stopped looking for work are not counted among the unemployed.

As the number of employed civilians rose steadily from 2003 to 2006, the number of unemployed slowly declined.

The rate of civilian unemployment during the 2000s exceeded the rate of civilian employment.

Unemployed civilians made up about 25% of the total civilian workforce from 2000 to 2010.