I’ve been tracking and carefully graphing the employment statistics for years now. I noticed a flattening of the Household data a long time ago. It flattened out at around 146 million jobs in Dec 2006. It’s been bouncing around that figure ever since, and this report, though it looks hopeful, still hasn’t broken out of that zone.

But here’s a more interesting question: With the baby boomers reaching retirement (and certainly already well in the early-retirement) age, won’t it be nearly impossible to NOT see a drop in employment month after month, year after year, until the boom is retired?

Couple that with news reports telling of illegal aliens (who, I believe, are included in the Household Survey) returning home, a drop is certainly not unexpected, nor should we expect much growth in the future.

As long as productivity continues to grow, I don’t see much wrong with the employment levels dropping.