US unemployment drops to a still-high 13.3%

The US unemployment rate fell unexpectedly in May to 13.3% — still on par with what the nation witnessed during the Great Depression — as states loosened their coronavirus lockdowns and businesses began recalling workers faster than economists had predicted.

The government said Friday that the economy added 2.5 million jobs last month, driving unemployment down from 14.7% in April.

For weeks, economists had been warning that unemployment in May could hit 20% or more, rivaling what was seen during the depths of the Depression in the 1930s.

"It's pretty clear that our policies have a lot to do with this. The actions taken by Congress were huge," said Erica Groshen, the former commissioner of the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Once again, the Labor Department acknowledged making errors in how it classified people as employed and said the real May rate is worse than the numbers indicate. But the government made the same mistakes in April, and together the figures still show the job market is improving.

The May job gain, which confounded economists' expectations of another round of severe losses, suggests that thousands of stores, restaurants, gyms and other companies reopened and rehired more quickly than many analysts had forecast.