The graph shows unemployment as a percentage of the total percentage of labour force.

The rate peaks at the beginning of 1995, with a rapid increase in unemployment from the beginning of 1994, and a sharp decrease from 1995. This can be attributed to the passing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The most extreme estimate of job losses due to NAFTA is 879,280 actual and potential jobs between 1994 and 2000 in the US. This figure comes from a study performed in 2001, when the Economic Policy Institute and the economist Robert Scott calculated how many more jobs there would be if the US trade deficit with Canada and Mexico were the same in 2002 as it was in 1993, adjusting for inflation.

In Mexico, unemployment was high before Nafta but decreased after the agreement took place. The US government had promised more jobs for the Mexican people through the agreement. Employment grew from 33.9 to 39.1 million jobs over the 1995-99 period (3.7 per cent annually).