this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2026
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Right, but the larger point being made in the article is that the metric has become less useful over time. I was continuing to quote because you were taking it out of context.
As workforce participation ahas gone down. Many people are checking entirely out of the economy (no longer looking for work) or don't make enough to afford basic things like housing and healthcare. We literally have a class of working homeless people in this country. Those people are technically "employed".
Sure, they're called Retirees. And they're moving into retirement due to their advanced age. And we're seeing a glut of them due to the lopsided Boomer age cohort. But, among Millennials and Zoomers, workforce participation is above the historical average. Two-income housesholds are the modern norm. We are not in any kind of unemployment crisis. If anything, we're experiencing a labor shortage.
That's got nothing to do with workforce participation, either as a useful metric or a share of the population. Far more indicative of our abysmal housing policies and our atrocious criminal justice system.