Currently the labour force participation is close to a three decade low.
They tell you something about the strength of the economy, but they also tell you about the level of labour force participation at any given point in time: immigration, demographics - you name it.
The unemployment number just looks at those actively looking for work, therefore if labour force participation stays low it will only take modest job growth to be responsible for the unemployment rate to enjoy a significant decline.
Labour-force participation remains well below its 2000 peak, and payroll headcounts have only this year returned to their 2001 levels.
Chronic economic ills include low labour-force participation and incontinent public finances.
Flexibility, it appears, increases participation in the labour force as well as the number of people in work: unemployment will fall only if the rise in participation is less than the rise in the number at work.
Some of this is due to an ageing population and some to a rising share of that population in the labour force: the so-called participation rate has jumped a percentage point, to 40%, while slipping for the population as a whole.
Gregory Rodriguez, a researcher at Pepperdine University, argues that foreign-born Hispanics have three advantages which help them make up for their lack of educational qualifications: the highest number of wage-earners per family of any ethnic group, the highest participation in the labour force, and stable families.
That suggests the trends are driven mainly by deep-seated forces, such as the changing social attitudes that accompanied the contraceptive pill, and the increased participation of women in the labour force.
The participation rate, the share of the labour force either working or looking for work, has declined steadily since 2007, though it ticked up ever so slightly in September, to 63.6% (see chart).
The labour force is some 6m smaller now than it would be had participation remained at 2007 levels.
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