Lowest unemployment rates in decades at end of 1999. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 1999—a 30-year low. The rate had been 4.4 percent at the end of 1998.[Chart data— ]. Workers in most major demographic groups benefited from improvements in the job market in 1999.he teenage unemployment rate had not been this low since the early 1970s. The unemployment rate for whites ended the year at a three-decade low of 3.5 percent. For Hispanics, the unemployment rate reached a record low of 6.1 percent at the end of 1999.