U.S. Jobless Rate Falls Below 4% For First Time Since Late 2000

Unemployment dips to 3.9%, but wage growth remains sluggish even as labor markets tighten.

Unemployment in the U.S. has fallen to one of the lowest levels of the post-World War II era, the result of a historically long jobs expansion that shows little evidence of slowing.

The jobless rate fell to 3.9% in April from 4.1% a month earlier, hitting the lowest level since December 2000, the Labor Department said Friday.

Job growth expanded in industries including manufacturing, health care, and accounting. Employers added 164,000 jobs in April and have created an average 200,000 jobs a month this year, up from last year’s average gain of 182,000.

The fall in joblessness marked yet another milestone in the nation’s long recovery from the 2007-2009 recession, which sent unemployment soaring to 10% in October 2009. Unemployment has been below 4% only a few times over the past 70 years—during the Korean War in the early 1950s, during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and during the tech boom of 2000.

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