America's best job market in years

America has had a record 92 straight months of job growth

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Unemployment in the U.S. right now "is about as low as it gets," said Mark Whitehouse at Bloomberg. Propelled by a record 92 consecutive months of job growth, the U.S. unemployment rate sank to 3.8 percent in May, its lowest level since April 2000; the last time the rate was lower was in 1969. Sectors across the economy contributed to the 223,000 added jobs last month, from manufacturing to health care to retail. The unemployment rate for college graduates fell to just 2 percent, and to only 3.9 percent for those with a high school diploma. Joblessness among African-Americans tumbled from 6.6 percent to a record-low 5.9 percent. And for the first time ever, the number of job openings now exceeds the number of unemployed Americans. The only question from this month's report is "whether there are enough synonyms for 'good,'" said Neil Irwin at The New York Times. Even persistently lackluster wage growth may finally be rebounding: Average earnings are up 2.7 percent year over year, slightly faster than inflation. Clearly, "the economy is in a sweet spot."

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