Latest News

Washington Post: Does a lower unemployment rate mean a better labor market?

The government’s latest jobs report offered both good news and bad news, reflecting an emerging reality of the nation’s economy. The unemployment rate fell from 7.9 percent to 7.7 percent in November, the Labor Department reported Friday, its lowest level in four years. It has dropped more quickly in the past year than in any one-year period since 1995. So much for the good news. Even as the unemployment rate is making encouraging progress toward normalcy, it is less than clear that the same can be said about the labor market. That’s because the rapid improvement in the jobless rate is being aided by the large number of Americans who remain out of the labor force. The labor force participation rate — a measure of the share of working-age people who either have a job or are unemployed and looking for one — remains near lows not seen since large numbers of women began entering the workforce decades ago. In November, the participation rate was 63.6 pe... Read More