Labor Dept. trumpets declining unemployment while US labor force participation at 30-year low

The latest jobs figures from the US Labor Department make America’s current unemployment crisis seem almost over. By digging deeper into the statistics, however, the good news isn’t any more that number fudging from Washington.

For the month of April, the US Department of Labor says that the unemployment rate in America has declined to 8.1 percent, down one-tenth of a percent from a month earlier. Also on the decline, though, is the labor force participation rate, which last month clocked in at 63.6 percent — the lowest it’s been since 1981.

While the friendlier-appearing unemployment rate reveals that there is a drop in the proportion of Americans filing jobless benefit claims with the federal government when compared with the total of those seeking work, the news isn’t exactly as nice as the Labor Department is making it out to be.