Here's Why Goldman Economists Expect Even Lower U.S. Unemployment

Goldman Sachs economists have turned more pessimistic on the outlook for the U.S. labor-force participation rate, which is already at its lowest level since 1977.

Just 62.4 percent of civilian, noninstitutionalized Americans ages 16 and older worked or looked for work in September, compared with 66 percent in December 2007, the start of the last recession. Economists, commentators, and even Federal Reserve researchers have spilled a lot of ink debating whether the participation decline is a short-term, "cyclical" aftershock of the economic downturn, or if it signals a more permanent, "structural" shift in the economy.