Greets and saluts from the bright and sunny NYC metro area. The BLS released their monthly statistics, and here’s a sample news report, which shows the rate dropping to 6.3% from 6.7%. It’s better than what analysts had expected, and earlier months were likewise revised upwards.

The labor market roared ahead in April as milder weather helped employers add 288,000 jobs — the most in more than two years.

The unemployment rate fell to 6.3% from 6.7% — the lowest since September 2008, the Labor Department said Friday.

Economists surveyed by Action Economics estimated that 210,000 jobs were added last month.

Businesses added 273,000 jobs, led by strong gains in professional and business services, retail and restaurants, and construction. Federal, state and local governments added 15,000.

Job gains for February and March were revised up by a total 36,000. February’s increase was revised to 222,000 from 197,000 and March’s to 203,000 from 192,000.

Strong job growth is a good thing, but not what the GOP wants people to think.

Here’s the BLS figures for unemployment using different measures. U-3 is the official rate (using the seasonally adjusted figures). U-6 is the one that GOPers will latch on to.

They have a limited point here. The U-6 is always higher than the official rate, but over the past few years, the U-6 rate has diverged from the official rate by a greater margin than in the past. In past years, the U-6 was about 4 points higher than the U-3 official rate. It’s now closer to 6 points higher.

The problem for the GOP is that they don’t offer up anything that would actually reduce the unemployment rate for those who have been marginalized by the job market.