I believe the average unemployment rate was 5.2% under GWB. And where are we now? 9.6% and heading north toward 10%. All the so-called “jobs created or saved” don’t change those numbers.
| U-6 unemployment | ||||||||||||
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 2000 | 7.1 | 7.2 | 7.1 | 6.9 | 7.1 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.1 | 7.0 | 6.8 | 7.1 | 6.9 |
| 2001 | 7.3 | 7.4 | 7.3 | 7.4 | 7.5 | 7.9 | 7.8 | 8.1 | 8.7 | 9.3 | 9.4 | 9.6 |
| 2002 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.4 | 9.7 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.6 | 9.6 | 9.6 | 9.6 | 9.7 | 9.8 |
| 2003 | 10.0 | 10.2 | 10.0 | 10.2 | 10.1 | 10.3 | 10.3 | 10.1 | 10.4 | 10.2 | 10.0 | 9.8 |
| 2004 | 9.9 | 9.7 | 10.0 | 9.6 | 9.6 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.4 | 9.4 | 9.7 | 9.4 | 9.2 |
| 2005 | 9.3 | 9.3 | 9.1 | 8.9 | 8.9 | 9.0 | 8.8 | 8.9 | 9.0 | 8.7 | 8.7 | 8.6 |
| 2006 | 8.4 | 8.4 | 8.2 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 8.2 | 8.1 | 8.0 |
| 2007 | 8.3 | 8.1 | 8.0 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.8 |
| 2008 | 9.1 | 8.9 | 9.0 | 9.2 | 9.7 | 10.0 | 10.5 | 10.9 | 11.2 | 11.9 | 12.8 | 13.7 |
| 2009 | 14.0 | 15.0 | 15.6 | 15.8 | 16.4 | 16.5 | 16.4 | 16.8 | 17.0 | 17.4 | 17.2 | 17.3 |
| 2010 | 16.5 | 16.8 | 16.9 | 17.1 | 16.6 | 16.5 | 16.5 | 16.7 |