Additionally, the drop in the unemployment rate is largely attributable to the fact that some 310,000 people simply stopped looking for work and therefore are no longer counted as unemployment. The Labor Force participation rate fell from 64.2% to 64.0%, if that figure were at the same level it was at the time President Obama took office, the current unemployment rate would be 11%. So, while the press, the Administration, and many Americans are likely to focus on the topline unemployment number, there’s really nothing encouraging about this report beyond the fact that it’s always good when more people are working. Even Matthew Yglesias acknowledged that on Twitter this morning, when he noted that lowering unemployment by decreasing labor force participation is “not exactly winning the future.”