Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   Heading In Right Direction Date:   6/4/2018 12:39:53 PM

I would also be remiss if I didn't point out that the U-2 number is still a joke because it doesn't take into account the labor participation rate.  The current rate is 62.7% which is still far too low.  The real number to watch is the U-6 which is down to 7.4% (from a high of 10.1% in Januray 2017) and improving slightly but still too high.  What I don't get is that as the economy improves I expected the U-2 numbers to go up and not down as more people entered the job seeking process assuming they could find one.  Would be interesting to see if these people out of the labor market have given up totally or what.  Assuming they wanted to work, they ought to be getting back into the market for a job which would drive U-2 up and U-6 down as they found work.  I hope we haven't created a permanent underclass that simply won't work even if jobs are available.  And of course part of the labor participation rate takes into account retirees, especially as baby boomers leave the job market permanently.  I can't find any recent data on how much of the LPR is retirees.