 Cherbourg-Octeville supports an unemployment rate (19.6% in 1999), double that of its job base (9.3% in 2006, a decrease of 1.1% in one year) which itself has the highest unemployment of the basins of employment of the department.At 31 December 2004, there were 3,700 jobseekers.Therefore, the annual average household income is lower than the national average (€13,730 for the city, compared with €15,027 in France) despite an average monthly salary (€1,590 in 2001) highest job growth of the department and higher than that of Caen-Bayeux (€1,550).