April 2019 Sales Figures

If not for RAM sales, FCAs losses would be even more devastating that they already look. Just brutal. 

22 minutes ago, surreal1272 said:

If not for RAM sales, FCAs losses would be even more devastating that they already look. Just brutal. 

It's interesting that the small Asian brands are doing really well while the big ones are flat or down. 

I take that back as new numbers come in. 

Fiat, Alfa and Chrysler sales are just miserable.  This is why Sergio wanted to merge and dump some brands.

44 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The problem was he wanted to dump the wrong brands.  He wanted to save the Italian brands and kill off the american ones except Jeep.

Ram and Jeep are the only 2 American brands they need.  Alfa Romeo  products should probably be merged into Maserati as their luxury brand.  They really only need one luxury/performance brand, just pick one.  Too many weak brands in FCA, it is like early 2000s GM.

5 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Dodge is the everyman brand
Chrysler is the premium brand like a cross between Buick and Lincoln.
Fiat - kill in the US
Alfa - Merge with Maserati
Maserati - Ultra luxury brand
Ram - Trucks
Jeep - just be jeep.

Chrysler is a North America only brand with low volume, they don't need that.  I could see keeping Dodge for North America and Fiat for Europe, but I feel like 2030 onward when ride sharing and autonomy goes up and car sales go down, regional brands won't survive, only global ones will.

12 hours ago, smk4565 said:

Chrysler is a North America only brand with low volume, they don't need that.  I could see keeping Dodge for North America and Fiat for Europe, but I feel like 2030 onward when ride sharing and autonomy goes up and car sales go down, regional brands won't survive, only global ones will.

Chrysler needs product. Jeep and Ram are thriving because they actually have new product. Chrysler will too if given the chance.

12 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Chrysler needs product. Jeep and Ram are thriving because they actually have new product. Chrysler will too if given the chance.

And what product will sell there?  There is no point in making 3 SUVs for Chrysler as they have Jeep for SUV and Jeep sales are down.  Sedans don't sell, FCA could spend $2 billion on a new mid-size sedan and the Camry will outsell it 5 to 1, so that would be a total waste of money.  The brand is just a dead brand, Pontiac had more mojo in 2007 than Chrysler has in 2019.

10 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

And what product will sell there?  There is no point in making 3 SUVs for Chrysler as they have Jeep for SUV and Jeep sales are down.  Sedans don't sell, FCA could spend $2 billion on a new mid-size sedan and the Camry will outsell it 5 to 1, so that would be a total waste of money.  The brand is just a dead brand, Pontiac had more mojo in 2007 than Chrysler has in 2019.

Jeep sells real honest-to-God SUVs that are supposed to go off-road.  Chrysler does NOT have those.  The Pacifica is a really good if not great minivan.  A very good FWD crossover or two can do Chrysler some good.  Just don't mess it up like they did with the Dodge Journey.

1 hour ago, riviera74 said:

Jeep sells real honest-to-God SUVs that are supposed to go off-road.  Chrysler does NOT have those.  The Pacifica is a really good if not great minivan.  A very good FWD crossover or two can do Chrysler some good.  Just don't mess it up like they did with the Dodge Journey.

Renegade, Compass and Cherokee are all front drive crossovers, all of those are down this year.  Wrangler is down, but I think they just overpriced the new one, that is a different issue.

FCA has bad reliability.  They can give Chrysler all the crossovers they want to, but until they fix the reliability and build quality they aren't going to make a dent in Rav4 and CR-V sales, not to mention the 7 SUVs over at Hyundai.  The Pacifica is down 30% this year, the 300 is down 40% for the year, 50% last month, and probably what they did sell is fleet sales.  Chrysler is basically one product and that product is hemoraging 30% losses despite not being that old on the market.  They invented the mini-van and can't even win in that segment, why on earth would the dump money into crossovers to take on the Rav4 and Highlander, they have no shot there.  Likewise with Dodge, their sales are tanking and they have no new product on the horizon.

Nearing 42k miles on my very early build "Jeepiat" with nary an issue.  At what point is "reliability" measured?

2 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Nearing 42k miles on my very early build "Jeepiat" with nary an issue.  At what point is "reliability" measured?

Funny you say that...

My partner's TESLA Model S is has over 100 000 KM (over 60 000 miles) and other than a couple of recalls (3-5 recalls), nary an issue too...

To keep this in perspective...my own Acura has had 2 or 3 recalls to which one of them was silent...but the TL is very reliable...

My wife's Fusion...I literally cant count them on both of my hands as I think the recalls exceeded 10...but the Fusion, other than front brake rotors being changed prematurely because they warped (prematurely|), very reliable too...

Anecdotes are fun..arent they? 

But you have hidden agendas , and you become hypocritical when discussing things...

Two things: (1) God, I hate Subarus, and (2) I am anxiously waiting to see what the next Charger will look like.

Next ...

6 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

Two things: (1) God, I hate Subarus, and (2) I am anxiously waiting to see what the next Charger will look like.

Next ...

I just read Consumer Reports' Auto Issue borrowed from a neighbor.  CR loves Subaru almost as much as Toyota/Lexus this year.

10 hours ago, balthazar said:

Chrysler is in the sale volume tent as Acura & infiniti and it's 25% higher than volvo.
No way that's 'miserable' volume unless those other premium brands are also. Are they?

I agree with DD; we read certain people claim Lincoln was "a dead brand" but all it took was product to revive it. Chrysler has far greater potential than fiat or alfa romeo has, it just needs the right product.
 

Quoted for truth...and even a die hard For Cynic like me cannot help but like the new Lincoln product.

3 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Nearing 42k miles on my very early build "Jeepiat" with nary an issue.  At what point is "reliability" measured?

You have almost as many miles as I have on my 5 yr old Jeep...42.5k now.  In the 2 years I've had it, it's been very reliable.   Happy w/ my FCA CPO. 

12 hours ago, smk4565 said:

And what product will sell there?  There is no point in making 3 SUVs for Chrysler as they have Jeep for SUV and Jeep sales are down.  Sedans don't sell, FCA could spend $2 billion on a new mid-size sedan and the Camry will outsell it 5 to 1, so that would be a total waste of money.  The brand is just a dead brand, Pontiac had more mojo in 2007 than Chrysler has in 2019.

Lincoln style crossovers based on Pacifica.  It could be done just fine.   Why does Porsche, Audi, and VW all have SUVs that overlap?

10 hours ago, balthazar said:

Chrysler is in the sale volume tent as Acura & infiniti and it's 25% higher than volvo.
No way that's 'miserable' volume unless those other premium brands are also. Are they?

I agree with DD; we read certain people claim Lincoln was "a dead brand" but all it took was product to revive it. Chrysler has far greater potential than fiat or alfa romeo has, it just needs the right product.
 

Chrysler is not a luxury brand though, it is a Honda Odyssey, Toyota Avalon competitor brand.   Chrysler also doesn’t have European or Chinese market sales like some of those other brands do.  

GM has spent billions upon billions on Cadillac trying to revive them and they are still struggling and they were never a “dead” brand nor did Cadillac have a total product drought like Chrysler has.  FCA will probably go bankrupt trying to revive Chrysler, the reason they have no new product is there is no money.

26 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Lincoln style crossovers based on Pacifica.  It could be done just fine.   Why does Porsche, Audi, and VW all have SUVs that overlap?

Porsche and Audi are pretty different and is the Toureg even still around?  I mean I know it exists but not in USA anymore I don’t think.  That is the only VW suv built on the MLB platform.

FCA can’t get Alfa Romero or Maserati to compete with the German and Japanese luxury brands, yet the Chrysler brand could pull that off?  Zero chance, waste of money if they try it.

18 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Chrysler is not a luxury brand though, it is a Honda Odyssey, Toyota Avalon competitor brand.   Chrysler also doesn’t have European or Chinese market sales like some of those other brands do.  

GM has spent billions upon billions on Cadillac trying to revive them and they are still struggling and they were never a “dead” brand nor did Cadillac have a total product drought like Chrysler has.  FCA will probably go bankrupt trying to revive Chrysler, the reason they have no new product is there is no money.

There's plenty of money. They have no debt. They already have the platform. They could build two or three crossovers off the Pacifica. Build a Terrain sized crossover for Chrysler off the Cherokee and give it a Buick Envision type of quiet luxury. 

Jeep is gushing cash and that cash is being spent poorly on trying to give CPR to Alfa Romeo and Fiat instead of Chrysler.  As far as making it global, they could be sold as Chrysler in China and as Lancia in Europe. Just swap the badges. 

15 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Porsche and Audi are pretty different and is the Toureg even still around?  I mean I know it exists but not in USA anymore I don’t think.  That is the only VW suv built on the MLB platform.

FCA can’t get Alfa Romero or Maserati to compete with the German and Japanese luxury brands, yet the Chrysler brand could pull that off?  Zero chance, waste of money if they try it.

Chrysler isn't meant to compete against the German brands directly. It should be more of a Lincoln brand/Buick brand type of thing. 

Porsche and Audi are no more different than Chrysler and Jeep... if anything they are much closer in mission than Chrysler and Jeep are. 

42 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Porsche and Audi are pretty different and is the Toureg even still around?  I mean I know it exists but not in USA anymore I don’t think.  That is the only VW suv built on the MLB platform.

FCA can’t get Alfa Romero or Maserati to compete with the German and Japanese luxury brands, yet the Chrysler brand could pull that off?  Zero chance, waste of money if they try it.

So what you are saying is that FCA is merely continuing the failure that Daimler started almost twenty years ago by just leaving Chrysler and Dodge hanging out to rot on a vine. Good to know.

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

You have almost as many miles as I have on my 5 yr old Jeep...42.5k now.  In the 2 years I've had it, it's been very reliable.   Happy w/ my FCA CPO. 

Considering  a Jeep for my next vehicle.

58 minutes ago, surreal1272 said:

So what you are saying is that FCA is merely continuing the failure that Daimler started almost twenty years ago by just leaving Chrysler and Dodge hanging out to rot on a vine. Good to know.

Daimler should have never bought them to begin with, Daimler lost like $20 billion on them.  And the Daimler era got Chrysler the LX platform and the Grand Cheroke platform, which are like the only 2 Chrysler products that have done anything the past 15 years.

11 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Daimler should have never bought them to begin with, Daimler lost like $20 billion on them.  And the Daimler era got Chrysler the LX platform and the Grand Cheroke platform, which are like the only 2 Chrysler products that have done anything the past 15 years.

They started the downward spiral of product degradation, from the half baked Crossfire to the POS Caliber. FCA had to clean up that dumpster fire and finally update the Charger and Grand Cherokee. I do agree about the LX platform though. It is still a solid platform to this day even if it is old as dirt (by todays standard).

9 minutes ago, surreal1272 said:

They started the downward spiral of product degradation, from the half baked Crossfire to the POS Caliber. FCA had to clean up that dumpster fire and finally update the Charger and Grand Cherokee. I do agree about the LX platform though. It is still a solid platform to this day even if it is old as dirt (by todays standard).

Chrysler had PT Cruiser, Sebring, 300, Town and Country, Pacifica, Crossfire, Aspen under Daimler, now they have 300 and Pacifica.  Daimler didn’t kill those 5 models and not replace them, that came post Daimler.  Chrysler probably thought in 1998 that Daimler buying them was god’s Greatest gift, they would probably have been bankrupt well before 2009 had Daimler not bought them.

And if FCA was so cash rich as Drew suggests, why haven’t they put any SUVs at Chrysler?  

7 hours ago, smk4565 said:

Chrysler had PT Cruiser, Sebring, 300, Town and Country, Pacifica, Crossfire, Aspen under Daimler, now they have 300 and Pacifica.  Daimler didn’t kill those 5 models and not replace them, that came post Daimler.  Chrysler probably thought in 1998 that Daimler buying them was god’s Greatest gift, they would probably have been bankrupt well before 2009 had Daimler not bought them.

And if FCA was so cash rich as Drew suggests, why haven’t they put any SUVs at Chrysler?  

Bob Eaton Sold Chrysler to Daimler because he wanted shareholders to cash out.  Chrysler has largely suffered ever since.  FCA (i.e. the Italians) HATE all Chrysler brands NOT named Jeep.  The new CEO must ditch FIAT and Alfa Romeo as soon as possible (at least in the USA); otherwise we will see Chrysler and Dodge will die while RAM and Jeep will be bled for cash.

11 hours ago, smk4565 said:

Chrysler had PT Cruiser, Sebring, 300, Town and Country, Pacifica, Crossfire, Aspen under Daimler, now they have 300 and Pacifica.  Daimler didn’t kill those 5 models and not replace them, that came post Daimler.  Chrysler probably thought in 1998 that Daimler buying them was god’s Greatest gift, they would probably have been bankrupt well before 2009 had Daimler not bought them.

And if FCA was so cash rich as Drew suggests, why haven’t they put any SUVs at Chrysler?  

Because they're using that money to try and revive dead Italian brands.  Something over a billion dollars spent on the Alfa platform, and what have they got to show for it?!?

Overall sales for the whole US market were down 2.3%

Chrysler could and should have a 300 replacement sedan on the pacifica platform.  If they priced it right, it would sell.  Not in huge numbers but it would be a white space niche.

Chrysler could have a large 3 row crossover, it may take some pacifica sales but they would add more brand sales overall than they would lose having that 'aspen' or whatver in the showroom, and that is a product that is hot and Jeep doesn't have.  Again, use the Pacifica platform.

Chrysler could have a smaller or midsize crossover for those who don't like Jeeps.  A buick Lincoln sort of thing.  It would sell also.

Another segment Chrysler could invade is a competitor to Subaru outback.  Jeep wont make a wagon and that would in effect be a defacto sedan replacement.

25 minutes ago, regfootball said:

Chrysler could and should have a 300 replacement sedan on the pacifica platform.  If they priced it right, it would sell.  Not in huge numbers but it would be a white space niche.

Chrysler could have a large 3 row crossover, it may take some pacifica sales but they would add more brand sales overall than they would lose having that 'aspen' or whatver in the showroom, and that is a product that is hot and Jeep doesn't have.  Again, use the Pacifica platform.

Chrysler could have a smaller or midsize crossover for those who don't like Jeeps.  A buick Lincoln sort of thing.  It would sell also.

Another segment Chrysler could invade is a competitor to Subaru outback.  Jeep wont make a wagon and that would in effect be a defacto sedan replacement.

Agree, should stop waisting money on trying to revive and push out the garbage italian auto's and focus on what drives their profits. Kill off Fiat and Alfa and invest in Chrysler as a luxury brand to mid market brand equal to what Buick and Cadillac are.

8 hours ago, dfelt said:

Agree, should stop waisting money on trying to revive and push out the garbage italian auto's and focus on what drives their profits. Kill off Fiat and Alfa and invest in Chrysler as a luxury brand to mid market brand equal to what Buick and Cadillac are.

They should kill off FIAT.  Alfa Romeo and Maserati serve different luxury markets and that would be throwing profits away.  Chrysler as a near-luxury brand can work if they are willing to invest the money into that.

12 hours ago, riviera74 said:

They should kill off FIAT.  Alfa Romeo and Maserati serve different luxury markets and that would be throwing profits away.  Chrysler as a near-luxury brand can work if they are willing to invest the money into that.

I understand the point you are stating, but from all accounts, Alfa and Maserati DO NOT generate profits. The billions taken from Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep to build a platform and sell a few thousands auto's does not make Alfa a profit center and Maserati has been eating up company capital also.

Drew once said merge the two together, but I have to wonder if they really can survive in the over load of auto choices especially with the Chinese pushing their own auto industry so hard. Italians seem to be lazy about building quality auto's.

3 hours ago, dfelt said:

I understand the point you are stating, but from all accounts, Alfa and Maserati DO NOT generate profits. The billions taken from Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep to build a platform and sell a few thousands auto's does not make Alfa a profit center and Maserati has been eating up company capital also.

Drew once said merge the two together, but I have to wonder if they really can survive in the over load of auto choices especially with the Chinese pushing their own auto industry so hard. Italians seem to be lazy about building quality auto's.

Point taken.  The Italians have little or no reason to sell cars in the USA when better marques already exist in their own stable.

On 5/2/2019 at 8:47 AM, riviera74 said:

I just read Consumer Reports' Auto Issue borrowed from a neighbor.  CR loves Subaru almost as much as Toyota/Lexus this year.

I know.  They may be reliable but I'll be behind the wheel of a Toyota long before I'll ever be behind the wheel of a Subaru.

On 5/3/2019 at 10:24 AM, Drew Dowdell said:

Overall sales for the whole US market were down 2.3%

Driving north through Ohio to see a friend...I saw a lot of rail cars normally used for shipping new cars put into sidings normally only used for deep storage of things that will be out of service for awhile. Signs of an impending slowdown?

13 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

I know.  They may be reliable but I'll be behind the wheel of a Toyota long before I'll ever be behind the wheel of a Subaru.

I actually like some of each of their products. But nothing is really exciting me in terms of new product. 

Saw an article on Japlopnik today about there being almost a record high # of unsold new vehicles.

13 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

Saw an article on Japlopnik today about there being almost a record high # of unsold new vehicles.

A new bubble forming. It makes the GDP look good, but it's not a good sign for the economy.

3 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

A new bubble forming. It makes the GDP look good, but it's not a good sign for the economy.

Good news for me if I replace the Beetle.

21 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Good news for me if I replace the Beetle.

Once it pops, deals are gonna be all over as dealers try to unload new product and CPO / used.

6 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Once it pops, deals are gonna be all over as dealers try to unload new product and CPO / used.

21 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Good news for me if I replace the Beetle.

once it pops, the whole economy is going to start to tumble. 

1 hour ago, Drew Dowdell said:

 

once it pops, the whole economy is going to start to tumble. 

Given the people we have elected, i certainly hope so. 

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

Once it pops, deals are gonna be all over as dealers try to unload new product and CPO / used.

At this point, I am so uninspired by most of what is sold that I see myself buying a used Chevy Colorado to haul lumber and tools and continuing with the woodworking thing. Finding most new rides rather passionless. 

I do see some type of recession coming.  I hope it isn't of the magnitude of the last one.  If it comes before the election, we can almost bet that a certain individual won't be in a key position he so much enjoys.  I, too, am passionless about the current automotive market.  I'd probably consider FCA products and Japanese products at this point.  

58 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

I do see some type of recession coming.  I hope it isn't of the magnitude of the last one.  If it comes before the election, we can almost bet that a certain individual won't be in a key position he so much enjoys.  I, too, am passionless about the current automotive market.  I'd probably consider FCA products and Japanese products at this point.  

The economy is in such a weird spot right now.  GDP was high, but it was mostly an increase in inventories. Unemployment is low, but that's mostly that people who have been out of work stopped looking for work.  There were 225k some jobs created last month, but the economy needs about 200k jobs a month to keep up with population growth. 

The one good thing is that wages for the lowest paid workers are starting to climb and it isn't have an inflationary effect. 

New car inventories being so high is a bad sign though. Hopefully they'll put out some incentives to move metal. 

10 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The economy is in such a weird spot right now.  GDP was high, but it was mostly an increase in inventories. Unemployment is low, but that's mostly that people who have been out of work stopped looking for work.  There were 225k some jobs created last month, but the economy needs about 200k jobs a month to keep up with population growth. 

The one good thing is that wages for the lowest paid workers are starting to climb and it isn't have an inflationary effect. 

New car inventories being so high is a bad sign though. Hopefully they'll put out some incentives to move metal. 

We will see more players drop out of the market. Nothing says that Mazda will survive as an independant, cars could be mostly gone other than specialty vehicles for Ford and GM, Tesla is not out of the woods, Nissan can't live indefinitely on easy financing, a lot of industry overlap everywhere. And China wants a piece of the pie.

1 minute ago, A Horse With No Name said:

We will see more players drop out of the market. Nothing says that Mazda will survive as an independant, cars could be mostly gone other than specialty vehicles for Ford and GM, Tesla is not out of the woods, Nissan can't live indefinitely on easy financing, a lot of industry overlap everywhere. And China wants a piece of the pie.

Mazda is positioning themselves as a manufacturer of cars for other brands.  I'm half surprised that Toyota didn't partner with them for the new Supra.  I think Mazda will survive.  Nissan and Renault need to consolidate their companies into one. They're running as separate entities and could stop a lot of overlap with a true merger.  China hasn't figured out the US market just yet and with unpredictable tariffs being thrown about, they may never do.  The only way the Chinese quickly is via another manufacturer like Volvo. 

It will all boil over. 

The world over is bubbling with too much debt. Debt. Debt. Debt.

There isnt one industrialized nation that doesnt have debt. Government debt. Consumer debt. 

Maybe not all industrialize nations. But a good portion. 

 In Canada and in the US,  citizens are over-consuming and have an insane amount of consumer debt.

I also can assume that the rising prices of new vehicles in North America are going to have some serious consequences because North Americans are spoiled bitches...in that new cars are priced higher and higher is because we North Americans will NOT buy a new car with no frills. We have come to the point where a luxury nameplate used car several years old is more valuable to our fragile egos that we North Americans refuse to buy brand new cheap cars with no frills. We are no longer proud to own a new car. Granted, reliability of cars today far exceed cars of yesteryear so I REALLY do understand why a 5 year old BMW  well equipped 5 Series would be more  appealing to own than a similarly priced brand new Nissan Sentra with no options...but THAT has forced entry level cars to have the same options as luxury vehicles which keeps pushing the average price of cars higher and higher and eliminates the cheaper, smaller cars. 

Manufactures need to move metal, and this phenomenon has created another competitor...the used car ...   the previously owned...   the certified pre-owned vehicle. 

It will all boil over. The system will reset itself. 

Either by a very gloomy future or a more friendlier version like we had back in 2009. But a global meltdown will happen again. 

I could be a Debbie Downer here....but Im amazed how we as consumers still consume voraciously yet we still complain the high price of this commodity and that how expensive that product is and how this service is lacking for high high the price is and...

And this here is another example...

We dont want high payroll, but we want to make big salaries.

We dont want to pay high taxes, but we moan about the condition of anything public...

We want everything now, we do not want to save, we buy everything on credit, we have bought all the damned toys that we could possibly want and need and are in debt several years worth of salary for it, yet we still want more and our consumer companies still want us to spend more...because they need to make more products for us to buy so they could still be in business and yet, we are all in debt...companies borrow money, we borrow money. We buy buy buy. We spend spend spend...

There are sooooo many car companies to buy cars cars cars...

Something will give. 

5 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The economy is in such a weird spot right now.  GDP was high, but it was mostly an increase in inventories. Unemployment is low, but that's mostly that people who have been out of work stopped looking for work.  There were 225k some jobs created last month, but the economy needs about 200k jobs a month to keep up with population growth. 

The one good thing is that wages for the lowest paid workers are starting to climb and it isn't have an inflationary effect. 

New car inventories being so high is a bad sign though. Hopefully they'll put out some incentives to move metal. 

Not so sure about the Inflationary effect. As having to work in a city where they went to a mandatory minimum $15hr living wage, I have noticed so many of my coworkers that used to go out to eat have changed to bringing in brown bag lunches like in school. Many small places to eat have closed up or to keep prices the same have cut the portion size in half.

Cost of parking in Seattle has doubled in the last 2 years. Daily parking was $30 all day with $25 early bird parking. Now early bird parking is $55 and all day is $60, event parking for the stupid pro teams is now anywhere from $80 to $160.

The last two years costs have exploded. Seattle now has average home prices of $1.1 million. Where I live up north, the days of finding $300,000 to $500,000 homes are gone and now starting home prices are around $600,000 and go up.

Wages are stagnate, if you want to make more money, it seems entry level jobs around here require a masters degree in tech. A bachelors is what people used to think of an AA or 2yr degree 10 years ago.

One positive is that Highschool kids who apply themselves can graduate with a 2yr college degree and go into any of the 4yr colleges here and have their bachelors by age 20 and masters by 22. Wish that was an option for me as I would have done the extra work to get it.

15 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Unemployment is low, but that's mostly that people who have been out of work stopped looking for work. 

Unemployment isn't merely "low", it's incredibly low.
U-6 unemployment (those who want a job but stopped looking) is also at the bottom of a downward trend- it was 11-12% in 2015, it was 6.9% in April.