As output decreased the unemployment rate increased, rising from in 2007 to a peak of in October 2009, and remaining only slightly below that high into 2011. The . unemployment rate has not been at this level since 1982, when in the aftermath of the 1981 recession it reached , the highest rate of the post-war period. (During the Great Depression the unemployment rate reached 25%.) This rise in the unemployment rate translates to about 7 million persons put out of work during the recession. Another million workers have been pushed involuntarily into part-time employment. .
