The U.S. labor market continues to steadily improve. The monthly job report this morning showed the unemployment rate dropping to a near four-year low of 7.8 percent in September.
The Labor Department said the unemployment rate dropped by 0.3 percentage point to its lowest point since January 2009 as employers added 114,000 workers to their payrolls, and monthly job gains for July and August were revised upward adding 86,000 jobs.
The jobless rate plummeted not because people gave up their job searches, but because the number of Americans in the workforce actually increased by more than 410,000 people in September. More than half of them likely reentered the job market by taking part-time jobs.
“That brought the ratio of the American population with a job to its highest level since May 2010,” said the Washington Post.
Reuters pointed out there is now a smaller percentage of unemployed Americans than when President Obama took office.
(READ more from Washington Post)