I must have taken my stupid pills this morning instead of my vitamins. Can someone explain that chart?
The bottom line is where Obama said we would be if we passed the stimulus
The next line up is the "official" unemployment rate, U3 - which is a fudged number based on the number of people actively looking for work.
The top line is what the unemployment rate would be if the number of people in the work force (either employed or looking for work) remained constant as a percentage of the population
The only reason Obama's unemployment rate is 8% and not 11% is because a large number of people have dropped out of the work force- they just quit working or looking for work. Some of that is attributable to people just retiring - but not enough to say that is the cause - for young people would also be entering. The boomers leaving is probably going to keep driving workforce participation down - while driving SS and Medicare ( and now Obamacare) payments up.
Decreasing workforce means decreasing tax revenue - and what this graph is saysing is that a number of younger folks who could be employed, just stopped looking (ran out of their 99 weeks of unemployment) , retired, applied for disability etc. - The Demographics on this ponzi scheme are ready to pop.