The chart tells the story: “Jobless Rate Soars to 14.7%, Worst Level since Great Depression.”
The front-page story in the Washington Post’s May 8 issue features a graphic from research by Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau, FRB San Francisco, and coauthor Lu Zhang in their paper, “Unemployment Crises.” The Post notes that the authors analyze historical sources to estimate monthly unemployment rates back to 1890, about 70 years before the beginning of monthly observations from the Labor Department.
The article is forthcoming in the Journal of Monetary Economics.
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (SF Fed) works to advance the nation’s monetary, financial, and payment systems to build a stronger economy for all Americans. As part of the U.S. central bank, the SF Fed serves the Twelfth Federal Reserve District, which covers the nine western states—Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawai’i, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—plus American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. By pursuing our two key goals of maximum employment and price stability—known as the Fed’s dual mandate—we work toward supporting an economy that works for everyone.