How did us unemployment rate change from 2024 to 2025 by month?
Executive summary
The U.S. unemployment rate moved modestly higher from 2024 into 2025, shifting from an average near the low 4 percent range in 2024 to readings clustered between about 4.1 and 4.6 percent through 2025, with a peak reported around November 2025 and a small dip to 4.4 percent in December 2025 [1] [2] [3]. Monthly changes were generally small — often one‑tenth of a percentage point or unchanged — reflecting a slowdown in job creation rather than a sudden spike in layoffs [4] [5].
1. A month‑by‑month portrait, in aggregate: modest upward drift rather than volatility
Available federal reporting shows that the unemployment rate increased only gradually month to month from 2024 into 2025, with many months unchanged and only four months moving by one‑tenth of a percentage point, consistent with BLS commentary that “the unemployment rate changed by one‑tenth of a percentage point in 4 of the 10 months and was unchanged in the remaining 6 months” for the period covered [4], and broader seasonal patterns keeping month‑to‑month variation muted rather than producing a jagged series.
2. Where the peaks and troughs landed: late‑2025 high, year‑end easing
Several sources converge on the same turning points: unemployment averaged higher in the fourth quarter of 2024 (about 4.2 percent) than the year before [1], rose through 2025 and hit a headline high near 4.6 percent in November 2025 according to state and national BLS releases and market summaries [2] [6], before edging down to 4.4 percent in December 2025 as payroll growth slowed to a modest 50,000 jobs for the month [3] [6].
3. The story behind the numbers: slower hiring, not a surge in joblessness
The change in the unemployment rate largely reflects a sharp reduction in hiring intensity rather than mass layoffs — payroll job gains averaged about 49,000 per month in 2025 versus roughly 168,000 per month in 2024, a dramatic slowing that produced only a modest upward movement in the unemployment rate as labor supply also shifted [4] [5] [7]. Researchers at the San Francisco Fed note this dynamic — job growth slowed materially between 2024 and 2025 while the unemployment rate rose only a few tenths because labor supply and demand both stepped down, muting the unemployment response [8].
4. State and demographic contours: increases were not uniform
BLS state‑level reporting shows variation across the country — for example, the national unemployment rate of 4.6 percent in November 2025 was 0.4 percentage point higher than November 2024, but individual states saw statistically significant upswings or declines, underscoring that the national monthly moves mask geographic heterogeneity [2]. Commentary and labor‑market breakdowns also document shifting outcomes across demographic groups (noted in contemporaneous reporting), indicating the rise in unemployment was distributed unevenly [3].
5. Limits of this reconstruction and where to find exact monthly values
The sources supplied summarize trends and highlight quarter‑end and peak months but do not provide a full, cited table of every monthly unemployment rate from January 2024 through December 2025 in the snippets provided; the BLS monthly employment report (the official empsit release) and the FRED UNRATE series contain the precise month‑by‑month series should a reader need exact values for each month [4] [9]. Reporters and analysts caution that benchmark and seasonal revisions mean the published sequence for 2024–2025 may be revised, so monthly point comparisons should come from the updated BLS tables [4] [1].