Probably more people decided to take early retirement or some sort of SSI income. That would be my guess. This is what happens with no manufacturing base.
We have a huge manufacturing base. It's just
1) is not being utilized
2) doesn't really take many people to get going
The internals of this report actually aren't too bad. Hours worked increased to 33.3, suggesting we are finally getting some sustainable increase in this figure, which had bottomed at 33.0. We need this to continue to increase as a leading indicator of real job growth.
