America's jobs figures reveal more than high unemployment, they show a declining productive capacity. Job loss remains a major U.S. problem, but the loss of productive capacity, which lies beneath it, is an even greater and longer-term problem. And unlike unemployment, it is something the vagary of statistics cannot long hide. March's jobs report showed a curious anomaly: low job growth (just 88,000), yet a fall in the unemployment rate from 7.7% to 7.6%. The reason such a push-me-pull-you result could occur was a fall in labor force participation by 663,000 and in the participation rate from 63.5% to 63.3%. (full story)