Why Falling Unemployment Can Be Bad News

When is good news bad news? When weâ??re talking jobs. In the upside-down logic of the labor market, a falling unemployment rate can sometimes be a worrisome sign, if it indicates that people have permanently given up looking for work. If youâ??ve quit looking for work youâ??re no longer considered part of the labor force. And if youâ??re not in the labor force, youâ??re technically not unemployed. So the jobless rate, now at 8.3 percent, falls for the worst of reasons.