The US unemployment rate dropped to 13.3 percent in May 2020 from 14.7% in April which was the largest in records back to 1939 and below market expectations of 19.8 percent, as the economy gradually reopened. The number of unemployed persons fell by 2.1 million to 21.0 million as those who were on temporary layoff decreased by 2.7 million to 15.3 million. Among those not on temporary layoff, the number of permanent job losers increased by 295,000 to 2.3 million. The number of employed rose by 3.8 million to 137.2 million and the labor force participation rate increased to 60.8 percent, after hitting the lowest since January 1973 the month before. Since February, the unemployment rate was up by 9.8 percentage points and the number of unemployed persons increased by 15.2 million.