In a major victory for President Trump, according to the Labor Department, unemployment in the United States in April dropped to under 4%, the lowest unemployment rate since December 2000.
Projections for the April unemployment rate had been estimated to be 4.0%; the economy did even better than that.
The best news may be this: as Bloomberg reported, job openings are ready to pass unemployed workers for the first time on record. Bloomberg stated, “The figures are in sync with a Labor Department report last week that showed demand for workers remains solid. Employers increased payrolls in April, pushing the unemployment rate down to 3.9 percent, the lowest since December 2000, and March job gains were revised upward.”
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Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate dropped from 62.9% to 62.8% in April; the employment-population ratio declined to 60.3% from 60.4%.
The unemployment rate had stayed steady at 4.1% for six months before plunging in April. 236 thousand people exited the labor force in April; the number of unemployed people decreased by 239,000 to 6.35 million. Unemployment in the United States averaged 5.78% from 1948 until 2018; it hit a peak of 10.8% November, 1982, and a record low of 2.5% in May, 1953.