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Goldman: Wave Goodbye to That Rebound in U.S. Labor Force Participation

Chart shows why it may be a blip.
Job Seekers Attend A Princeton Area Chamber of Commerce Career Fair Ahead Of Initial Jobless Claims
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

For the Federal Reserve, the most encouraging part of recent non-farm payroll reports hasn't been the hundreds of thousands of Americans getting jobs. It's that more of them are trying to.

After sinking to its lowest level since the 1970s in September, the labor force participation rate—the share of U.S. adults who have or are looking for a job—has since risen by half a percentage point to 62.9 percent.