Chuck Schumer Does Not Welcome Huge Drop in Unemployment

Chuck Schumer lashed out at Donald Trump on Friday after the president celebrated the sharp drop in the unemployment rate in August.

The unemployment rate stood at 10.2 percent a month earlier, which means it dropped nearly 18 percent in a single month. To put it differently, the rate fell by 1.8 percentage points.

Senator Schumer, the New Yoirk Democrat and minority leader in the U.S. Senate, took a different stance in 2012, when he criticized Republicans for not celebrating a more modest decline in unemployment from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent. That three-tenths improvement, or 3.7 percent, was celebrated by Democrats after months of labor market stagnation.

“Republicans should welcome a lower unemployment rate, not curse it as an unwanted October surprise,” Schumer said in a statement.