A look at American unemployment rates by state from 2000-2009 reveals a decade of steady unemployment rates that ended with a sharp rise in unemployment. As with most financial crises, the recession of the decade greatly affected unemployment rates. The unemployment rate is the number of people that have been determined as being without employment and who have actively tried to find employment within the last four weeks. It does not include people who are jobless and have stopped looking or who did not look within that four-week period.