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MaddowBlog

From The Rachel Maddow Show

Unemployment rate remains below 4% for the 27th consecutive month

Though job growth cooled a bit in April, the jobless rate has now been below 4% for 27 consecutive months — a streak unseen in the U.S. since the 1960s.

By Steve Benen

Expectations heading into this morning showed projections of about 240,000 new jobs having been added in the United States in April. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market didn’t manage to do quite that well. CNBC reported:

The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in April while the unemployment rate rose, reversing a trend of robust job growth that had kept the Federal Reserve cautious as it looks for signals on when it can start cutting interest rates. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 175,000 on the month, below the 240,000 estimate from the Dow Jones consensus.

In addition to the top-line data, we also learned that wage growth continued to outpace inflation. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, inched a little higher in new report, from 3.8% to 3.9%, though it’s worth emphasizing that the jobless rate has now been below 4% for 27 consecutive months — a streak unseen in the United States since the 1960s.

As for the politics, let’s circle back to previous coverage to put the data in perspective. Over the course of the first three years of Donald Trump’s presidency — when the Republican said the United States’ economy was the greatest in the history of the planet — the economy created roughly 6.35 million jobs, spanning all of 2017, 2018 and 2019.

According to the latest tally, the U.S. economy has created over 16 million jobs since January 2021 — more than double the combined total of Trump’s first three years.

In recent months, Republicans have responded to developments like these by pretending not to notice them. No one should be surprised if GOP officials keep the trend going today.

For some additional context, consider job growth by year over the past decade, updated to reflect the latest data revisions:

2013: 2.3 million

2014: 3 million

2015: 2.7 million

2016: 2.3 million

2017: 2.1 million

2018: 2.3 million

2019: 2 million

2020: -9.3 million

2021: 7.3 million

2022: 4.8 million

2023: 3 million

One-third of the way into 2024: 982,000

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."