- Nearly seven million people say they want a job but aren't actively looking for work. The share of the population that is working or looking for work—a measure known as the participation rate—stands near a three-decade low.
- Some of those who have left the labor force are unlikely to return. More than 8.9 million Americans were receiving federal disability payments in August, 1.8 million more than when the recession began. Experts suspect many of the new recipients would have kept working in a healthier economy; research has found that once people begin receiving disability payments, relatively few return to work.
Market Valuation, Inflation and Treasury Yields: Clues from the Past