Against expectations of 175 thousand new jobs created last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated only 156 thousand jobs were created.  That is still healthy but not healthy enough to overheat the labor market.  Better news is that both the average hours worked and the average weekly earnings increased.

Over 200 thousand people entered the workforce, but that still leaves 94.2 million of people who don’t work.  Approximately half are students and the other half are retirees.  The Labor Force Participation Rate ticked up, showing 62.9 percent of Americans work, which is up 0.5 percent in one year, which is good.

So, if the labor market is so good, why isn’t the GDP growing faster?  Because the stubborn U-6 level of unemployment is still 9.7 percent.  These are the unemployed, the under-employed, and those who work part-time because they cannot find full-time work.  Call them lazy, call them uneducated, call them victims of globalization, if you like.  But, they are a valuable economic resource that is being wasted.