The current unemployment rate of 8.1% is the highest since December 1983. The Reagan Recession unemployment rate remained above 8.1% for 26 consecutive months and peaked at 10.8% in November and December 1982. Before Ronald Reagan left office, it dropped to 5.3%. What’s alarming this time around is the rapidity of the rise in unemployment. The rate has gone up 0.9% in two months, the biggest jump since it went up the same amount in just one month: January 1975. During Jimmy Carter’s presidency, unemployment reached 9.0% in May 1975 and dropped to 5.6% in May 1979, before rising again into the 7s.