Following the release of the jobs report today, there was a lot of hubbub about the decline in labor force participation, and how the unemployment rate would look a lot worse if there hadn't been a rather big exodus of workers leaving the labor market completely. And this is true. BUT! This idea that things are so bad, and so everyone is just leaving the workforce to sit on their couch is a fantasy. The fact of the matter is that we're just getting older, and as countries get older, people stop working. In fact, rather than seeing our labor force participation as being really low, we might be better off thinking of ... (full story)