Tipsheet Closing In On 10% Unemployment Jillian Bandes | October 02, 2009 9:52 AM It clocked in at 9.8% in September, the highest since June 1983. Construction, auto, and retail were hit the hardest.Noticeably, "more than a half-million unemployed Americans gave up looking for work last month" -- and if they'd kept looking, the unemployment rate would be higher.