National unemployment was at 14.7 percent in April 2020. During the Great Recession, unemployment reached 10% in October 2009. The highest rate of U.S. unemployment was 24.9% in 1933, during the Great Depression.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent in September 2019. The unemployment rate declined to 4.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. The lowest unemployment rate was 1.2% in 1944.
The Federal Reserve says that the natural rate of unemployment falls between 3.5% and 4.5%.