But if the disheartened are only now ceasing their search for work, that suggests a drawn out period in which they rejoin the Labour force, lifting the unemployment rate.
With unemployment at 10% and prospects for finding work bleak, foreign-born professionals who came to the United States in search of better job opportunities and prosperity are now retreating.
The persons who can afford, as it were, to be unemployed are likely to pocket any additional unemployment benefits that they receive and slow their search for a job.