I got a question for you: During the 1940s, the U.S Department of Labor, specifically the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), began collecting employment information via monthly household surveys. Other data series are available back to 1912. The unemployment rate has varied from as low as 1 % during World War I to as high as 25 % during the Great Depression. More recently, it reached peaks of 10.8 % in November 1982 and 10.0 % in October 2009. Unemployment tends to rise during recessions and fall during expansions. From 1948 to 2015, unemployment averaged about 5.8 %. There is always some unemployment, with persons changing jobs and new entrants to the labor force searching for jobs. This is referred to as frictional unemployment. For this reason, the Federal Reserve targets the natural rate of unemployment or NAIRU, which was around 5 % in 2015. A rate of unemployment below this level would be consistent with rising inflation in theory, as a shortage of workers would bid wages (and thus prices) upward.

Based on this passage, what is the highest unemployment rate ever in the united states?
Let's think first:
The relevant information to answer the above question is: The unemployment rate has varied from as low as 1 % during World War I to as high as 25 % during the Great Depression.
Therefore, the answer is 25 %.