How many Americans still want jobs?

There's some lingering weirdness in the labor force participation rate. Here's what it means.

Busy offices.
(Image credit: Jose Vilchez / Alamy Stock Photo)

Another month, another fairly good jobs report. The U.S. economy created 209,000 new jobs in July, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3 percent. But there's even more good news: The labor force participation rate — basically, the percentage of the U.S. population in the workforce — also ticked up to 62.9 percent in July, continuing an upward trend from 62.8 percent in June.

How much higher can it go?

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.