The labor force participation rate is the more surprising part. Unemployment stays within a bounded range but the LFPR has been dropping steadily for the last quarter century, on track to erase the gains since the 1960s.
Oooooh that’s a very interesting statistic I’ve never heard popular media talk about. I think I assumed LFPR was something beyond our ability to accurately measure…
The labor force participation rate is the more surprising part. Unemployment stays within a bounded range but the LFPR has been dropping steadily for the last quarter century, on track to erase the gains since the 1960s.
Oooooh that’s a very interesting statistic I’ve never heard popular media talk about. I think I assumed LFPR was something beyond our ability to accurately measure…
Why would it be hard to measure? It can be done from sampling, but also the government has tax returns from everyone with a job in the formal economy.
The extent of cyclical versus structural unemployment is what’s harder to define.