The Federal Reserve has had its foot on the gas for so long that the conventional wisdom says a tap of the brakes can’t be far away. The right answer — what’s really best for the economy — depends in large part on how much “slack” there is in the labor market, and economists readily admit that’s a hard measure to gauge. Since the Great Recession, the labor force participation rate — the percentage of the population gainfully employed or looking for work — has dropped significantly. As a result, labor force participation started declining before the recession and is projected to continue that decline for at least another decade.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/unsolved-jobs-mystery-facing-fed-100000181.html
