Kevin Drum looks behind the curtain when it comes to the unemployment rate:
The number of unemployed is indeed down by 239,000, but where did they go? Not to the ranks of the employed, which rose by only 3,000. It turns out they left the labor force entirely, which is why the civilian labor force fell by 236,000 even though the total population grew.
So, sure, the unemployment rate is down, but it’s because 236,000 people gave up and quit looking for work—which means they no longer get counted as unemployed. This is bad news, not good.
Retirement would also be congruent with those numbers, but I don’t know that they break that segment out. And why would so many folks retire en masse, anyways?
