Unemployment Drops to Lowest Rate in Nearly 20 Years May was a good month for jobs in the United States, with the unemployment rate dropping to 3.8 percent. Over 220,000 jobs were added last month, which helped the jobless rate drop to the lowest it’s been since 2000. According to Bloomberg, the number of jobs added surprised Wall Street economists, who had predicted 190,000 jobs would be created. The economy also saw the average hourly earnings rise up by 8 cents per hour Michael Gapen, chief United States economist at Barclays, to 'The New York Times'