Unemployment is down, but so is the labor participation rate

Source:  Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics

The U.S. Economy Added 2.1 Million Jobs in 2017.  (The Atlantic, 1/5/2018)

And while unemployment has ticked down significantly, there are still tons of missing workers: December’s report showed that the labor-force participation rate was still at 62.7 percent, still well below historical norms.

Related reading:
Where have all the workers gone? An inquiry into the decline of the U.S. labor force participation rate.  (Brookings, 9/7/2017)

The increase in opioid prescriptions from 1999 to 2015 could account for about 20 percent of the observed decline in men’s labor force participation (LFP) during that same period.