Is the Unemployment Rate a Deceptive Statistic?

There is no perfect metric for employment as it relates to the health of the economy as a whole. Context is necessary for determining whether changes in these metrics are good or bad. People think of having less work as a bad thing but, over time, the number of hours worked has decreased pretty consistently over time. You can work less hours today for a better standard of living than people in the prior two centuries. In the context of the last century and a half as a whole, this is a good thing.