Friday's positive and hugely surprising jobs numbers not only put the U.S. economy that much closer to full employment, it also set a record that President Barack Obama now shares with former President Ronald Reagan.
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the national unemployment rate in October fell to 5 percent, the lowest mark of the Obama presidency. Five percent unemployment means that the nation is on the verge of the 4.9 percent level that the Federal Reserve considers as necessary for "full employment."
According to the political website Vox, only two presidents in the last 50 years have witnessed such swings that have halved the unemployment rate: Reagan and Obama.
"The quick rise and dramatic fall of the unemployment rate during the Obama years is unusual," Vox reports. "In the past 50 years, there's only been one other president — Ronald Reagan — who saw a bigger swing between high and low unemployment during his terms in office.
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