A “Now Hiring” sign posted in the window of a restaurant looking to hire workers in Miami, Fla., in a file photo. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
7/7/2026|Updated: 7/10/2026
Commentary
The latest jobs report brought better news than was expected. “Private companies added a net 98,000 jobs in June after adding 122,000 jobs in May,” reports said, while unemployment remained stable at 4.2 percent. That’s not great but it is suitable and stable—neither boom nor bust—and enough for recession watchers to believe that not much is happening of any concern.
At the same time, there are aspects of this report that raise genuine questions. It pertains to the very willingness of people to participate in economic life. It’s a problem especially on either end of the career spectrum, young workers and those over the age of 55.
Labor force participation had hit 63.3 percent in January of 2020. That’s not a record. The record was set 20 years earlier at 67.2 percent. It fell after the turn of the millennium. A recovery began in Trump’s first term. That lasted until the lockdown disaster of March, which led to mass dropouts by design.
Participation hit a low of 60.1 percent at peak disease frenzy and began to recover after. It appeared that we were on track to recover. Here is when the trouble began. Starting in August 2023, as inflation raged and life was not easing back into normalcy, a new fall began that has not stopped. Now we are hitting new lows for the period, coming in at 61.5 percent.
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