The unemployment rate gets all the press, but the employment rate has been improving lately too.
The number of Americans working as a proportion of the overall populace — called the employment-population ratio — rose to 58.8% in January. That level was last consistently seen in 2009.
Still, the measure remains well below its prerecession levels in the 60s. It bottomed out at 58.2% in late 2010, a fact many economists highlight as evidence of a lack of progress in the jobs recovery despite a falling unemployment rate.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Forget the Unemployment Rate, Let’s Talk About the Employment Rate – Real Time Economics – WSJ.
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