Exactly
Unemployment's long been known to be a bogus measure, because it counts only people still actively looking.
What matters is percentage of people in the population who are employed. And that figure's dropped by 1.9%. An honest accounting of unemployment would result in a figure of about 7.9%.
(From a timely article in this morning's newspaper. A newspaper that Tom also reads, so I notice his conspicuous silence when the news doesn't flatter the Right.)