The president is heading into Election Day with the highest unemployment rate on record since monthly tracking began in 1948.
Before President Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012, the nationwide unemployment rate was initially also reported at 7.9%, before being revised down a smidge to 7.8%.
In September, the nation was still down 10.7 million jobs compared to February — before Covid-19 hit and forced the country into lockdown.
People who are no longer in the labor force, no longer actively looking for work, are not accounted for in the nation’s unemployment rate.
The state-by-state numbers also hammer home that the recovery continues to be uneven. For example, states reliant on hospitality and tourism business, such as Hawaii and Nevada, which were hit harder by the crisis, are still lagging behind. The jobless rate in Hawaii stood at 15.1% in September, while Nevada’s was at 12.6%, the two worst rates in the country.
Meanwhile, Nebraska has the country’s lowest rate of joblessness at only 3.5%.