U.S. Unemployment

Daily Graph Series

About the Plot

You can see some Economist-style graphs here. By using R we can replicate one of these graphs as follows:

R Codes

R codes for this plot:

# Clear workspace: 
rm(list = ls())

# Some colors have been used by The Economist: 
economistColors <- c("#7b2713", "#eb9e84", "#00a4dc", "#f15a40", "#00526d")
my_colors1 <- c("#A8A9AD", "#5C92A1", "#6ED0F5", "#E7D3BA", "#822813", "#ED9176", "#EF5B3E")
my_colors2 <- ggthemes::economist_pal()(8)

# Show colors: 

scales::show_col(c(economistColors, my_colors1, my_colors2))

# Load some R packages: 
library(tidyverse)
library(lubridate)

# Load some data sets: 
data("economics")
data("presidential")

# Prepare data for ploting: 

presidential %>% 
  filter(name %in% c("Bush", "Clinton", "Obama")) -> some_presidents 

time_start <- some_presidents$start
time_end <- some_presidents$end

economics %>% 
  filter(date >= min(time_start), date <= max(time_end)) %>% 
  mutate(pre_name = case_when(date >= time_start[1] & date < time_end[1] ~ "George H. Bush", 
                              date >= time_start[2] & date < time_end[2] ~ "Bill Clinton", 
                              date >= time_start[3] & date < time_end[3] ~ "George W. Bush", 
                              date >= time_start[4] & date < time_end[4] ~ "Barack Obama")) -> economics_mini

economics_mini %>% 
  mutate(Year = year(date)) %>% 
  group_by(Year, pre_name) %>% 
  summarise(avg_unem = sum(unemploy) / 100) %>% 
  ungroup() %>% 
  filter(Year >= 1990, Year <= 2013) -> df_for_ploting 

df_for_ploting %>% 
  group_by(pre_name) %>% 
  slice(which.min(Year)) %>% 
  ungroup() %>% 
  arrange(Year) %>% 
  pull(Year) -> year_min

df_for_ploting %>% 
  group_by(pre_name) %>% 
  slice(which.max(Year)) %>% 
  ungroup() %>% 
  arrange(Year) %>% 
  pull(Year) -> year_max


df_for_ploting %>% 
  group_by(pre_name) %>% 
  summarise(x_start = min(Year), x_end = max(Year)) %>% 
  ungroup() %>% 
  arrange(x_start) %>% 
  mutate(x_end = case_when(x_end == 2013 ~ x_end, TRUE ~ x_end - 1)) %>% 
  mutate(x_position = 0.5*(x_end + x_start), y_position = 1900) %>% 
  mutate(color = rep(c("#f15a40", "#00a4dc"), each = 1, time = 2), fontface = "bold.italic") -> df_text

h <- 0.5
party_color <- c("#eb9e84", "#7ad2f6")
col_color <- "#00526d"
my_font <- "Roboto Condensed"
label_on_x <- as.character(1990:2013)
label_on_x_adjusted <- case_when(label_on_x %in% c("1990", "2000") ~ label_on_x, TRUE ~ str_sub(label_on_x, 3, 4))
y_max <- 2000
alpha <- 0.02

library(extrafont)

theme_set(theme_minimal())

df_for_ploting %>% 
  ggplot(aes(Year, avg_unem)) + 
  geom_rect(aes(ymin = 0, ymax = y_max, xmin = year_min[1] - h, xmax = year_max[1] - h), fill = party_color[1], alpha = alpha) + 
  geom_rect(aes(ymin = 0, ymax = y_max, xmin = year_min[2] - h, xmax = year_max[2] - h), fill = party_color[2], alpha = alpha) + 
  geom_rect(aes(ymin = 0, ymax = y_max, xmin = year_min[3] - h, xmax = year_max[3] - h), fill = party_color[1], alpha = alpha) + 
  geom_rect(aes(ymin = 0, ymax = y_max, xmin = year_min[4] - h, xmax = year_max[4] + h), fill = party_color[2], alpha = alpha) + 
  geom_col(fill = col_color, width = 0.6) + 
  scale_y_continuous(expand = c(0, 0), breaks = seq(0, 2000, 250), position = "right", labels = scales::comma) + 
  scale_x_continuous(expand = c(0, 0), breaks = seq(1990, 2013, 1), labels = label_on_x_adjusted) + 
  theme(plot.margin = unit(rep(0.8, 4), "cm")) + 
  theme(text = element_text(family = my_font)) + 
  theme(panel.grid.major.x = element_blank(), panel.grid.minor.x = element_blank()) + 
  theme(panel.grid.minor.y = element_blank(), panel.grid.major.y = element_line(size = 1, color = "grey80")) + 
  labs(x = NULL, y = NULL, title = "Number of unemployed persons in the United States from 1990 to 2013", 
       subtitle = "All numbers are in thousands and US unemployment level increased to an average of 1.75 million people in 2010.", 
       caption = "Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics") + 
  geom_text(data = df_text, aes(x_position, y_position, label = pre_name), 
            color = df_text$color, fontface = df_text$fontface, size = 4, family = my_font) + 
  theme(plot.title = element_text(size = 20, color = "grey10")) + 
  theme(plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 12, color = "grey20")) + 
  theme(plot.caption = element_text(size = 10, color = "grey20")) + 
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(size = 12, color = "grey20"), axis.text.y = element_text(size = 12, color = "grey20")) 


library(grid)
grid.rect(x = 0.015, y = 0.93, hjust = 1, vjust = 0, gp = gpar(fill = "#e5001c", lwd = 0))  
grid.rect(x = 1, y = 1 - 0.007 / 2, hjust = 1, vjust = 0,  gp = gpar(fill = "#e5001c", lwd = 0))