Are Another 1.3 Million Americans About To Drop Out Of Labor Force (And Send Unemployment Plunging)?

With even the Fed somewhat challenging the credibility of the official unemployment rate - as labor force participation collapses structurally - the possibility that if Congress does not act by Dec 28th, a further 1.3 million people will lose emergency aid and may be deemed 'out' of the labor force merely exaggerates an already farcical situation. As JPM's Mike Feroli notes, the "official" unemployment rate may drop up to 0.8 percentage points, but it won't mean the economy is any better. Is this the 'excuse' the Fed needs to transition from QE to forward guidance (with the public seeing only a rapidly collapsing unemployment rate as evidence of their success) even as the data that they are so "dependent" on becomes worse than useless?

As we warned in November, the only two charts that matter ahead of Friday's likely distorted nonfarm payrolls report.

First, the labor force participation rate, which plunged from 63.2% to 62.8% - the lowest since 1978!

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