Market Watch - The nation’s unemployment rate sank in April to the lowest rate since December 1969, but the milestone comes with a big caveat: The decline stemmed from more people quitting their search for work. The jobless rate slipped to 3.6% last month from 3.8% in March, continuing a long downward arc from a 27-year high of 10% in 2009. Yet that doesn’t mean there aren’t some potential trouble spots.
Take the size of the labor force. It contracted in April by nearly half a million people and fell for the fourth straight month.
The last time the labor force fell four months in a row was during the waning stages of the 2007-2009 Great Recession. And before that one has to go back to 1950.
As a result, the so-called labor-force participation rate slipped to 62.8% from a six-year high of 63.2% in January. That is, every 63 of 100 able-bodied Americans 16 or older either have a job or are seeking one.
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