Of course, it is also a very scary metric.

But I agree with Paul Krugman, workforce participation is one of the better metrics that we have to describe the unemployment situation.

However, I do have a problem with the graph, which is that the delta is magnified, by focusing on a range, in this case 61%-65%, as opposed to showing the full range from 1-100%.

I think that these sort of “broken range” graphs serve to overemphasize deltas….though that is a really scary picture, even if it’s done on a full 1-100 scale.

It shows that employment never recovered from the 2001 downturn, and that it’s headed down fast now.