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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (31660)	6/7/2005 3:59:29 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Labor Force Participation Rate – Some Noteworthy Details One of the anomalies of the current expansion is that the labor force participation rate has dropped instead of advancing (see chart 1). (Participation rate is the proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and older either at work or actively seeking work). At the onset of the recovery in November 2001, the labor force participation rate was 66.7%. The participation rate dropped to 65.8% in the first quarter of 2005. In May 2005, the participation rate rebounded to 66.1%. Estimates of the unemployment rate represent an overestimation of the strength in the labor market because of the atypical decline in the participation rate. In other words, the decline in the unemployment rate to 5.1% in May 2005 from a high of 6.3% in June 2003 is an exaggerated drop. Chart 1 northerntrust.com