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The unemployment rate was lower in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. It went up when the pandemic kicked in. Here is one (of many) sources I found with a single google search. https://www.statista.com/statistics/193290/unemployment-rate...

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The seasonally adjusted U-3 fell below 3.9% in May of 2018 for the first time since October of 2000[0]. I might’ve been a bit glib about “a few months”, it was closer to two years, but the general sentiment that the unemployment rate is extremely low right now still stands. It’s far lower than the entire period of October 2000 to May of 2018, which coincidentally covers the vast majority of my working life.

There are still some issues around childcare that need to be worked out, which is probably the biggest source of the gap between U-3 and U-6 right now. But this is still one of the hottest labor markets in most of our lives.

0 - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE/

4.5% in December, which puts it on-par with 2017 and lower than 2016. U-6, which is probably a better measure of actual slack in the labor market, is lower than any time in recent history except q3/4 2019.

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