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# Unemployment, By the Numbers
- URL: https://ivn.us/unemployment-by-the-numbers/
- Published: 2012-06-01T21:50:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-22T19:25:23.000Z
- Author: Jane Susskind
- Tags: News

Unemployment, by the numbers. This coupled with the recent [zombie outbreak](http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/01/zombie-apocalypse-trending-as-bad-news-spreads-quickly/?ref=ivn.us) ensures that the world is in fact ending in 2012.

- **40:** The unemployment rate has been at or above 8 percent for 40 consecutive months. Before President Obama took office, unemployment had not been above [8 percent](http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ln&ref=ivn.us) for this long since the Great Depression. Over three years ago, the Obama Administration [said](http://otrans.3cdn.net/45593e8ecbd339d074%5Fl3m6bt1te.pdf?ref=ivn.us) that unemployment would never reach 8 percent if the “stimulus” was approved.
- **$15.6**: The number of trillions the United States is currently in debt.
- **8.2%**: The unemployment rate for the month of May, up 0.1% from April's rate of 8.1%. May marked the worst month for unemployment in the last year.
- **$3.87**: The average cost for a gallon of gasoline.
- **Less than 6%:** The level at which the Obama Administration [claimed](http://otrans.3cdn.net/45593e8ecbd339d074%5Fl3m6bt1te.pdf?ref=ivn.us) unemployment would be today if the “stimulus” was signed into law was below 6 percent.
- **12,720,000:** There were [12.72 million](http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ln&ref=ivn.us) unemployed Americans looking for work in the month of May, an increase of 220,000 from April. There have been more than 12 million unemployed Americans every month that President Obama has been in office.
- **$1,154:** Since 2008, the year President Obama was elected, median family income has declined by [$1,154](http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf?ref=ivn.us), falling to its lowest level since 1996.
- **13th:** Where the U.S. ranks in [ease of starting a business](http://news.investors.com/article/589337/201110251850/better-in-rwanda.htm?ref=ivn.us) in the world according to a World Bank report. In 2007, the U.S. ranked 3rd.

All statistics from [FlashReport](http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2012/06/01/latest-unemployment-numbers-unacceptable/?ref=ivn.us) and the[ Bureau of Labor Statistics](http://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm?ref=ivn.us).