From the Wall Street Journal: “The labor force is about 600,000 smaller than in early 2020, when Covid-19 triggered a deep but short recession. It is several million smaller if you adjust for the increase in population. After approaching pre pandemic levels earlier this year, the number of workers has fallen since March by 400,000, according to Labor Department data.
The labor-force participation rate—the share of the population 16 years and older working or seeking work—was 62.1% in July, down from 62.4% in March, and much lower than the pre pandemic rate of 63.4%, the Labor Department said. In the short term, stalled labor-supply improvement is a concern because it increases the risk of a more damaging recession in the next year or two.” Read more here.