Discouraged Workers

Marginal Revolution suspects we are undercounting very discouraged workers in the unemployment rate.

They might want to also point out: the jobs aren't coming back.  If anything, the American workplace was bloated with superfluous employees for the past 15 years pre-recession.  Anyone who worked in an office or saw Office Space can attest.  What the recession did was forces businesses to get lean to get profitable, which they have, and maybe will hire a few more people now to stop leaning too hard on the productive employees.  But the jobs?  I don't see the jobs coming back.  Someone is going to need to figure something out to get our full population working again.  A world war is not preferable.