This is the one economic stat you should pay attention to

It's not the unemployment rate. It's the labor force participation rate. And in August, it finally stopped its slide into the abyss.

Economic indicators
(Image credit: iStock)

Pop quiz, hot shot: What's the most important data point in last Friday's jobs report? The number of new jobs? The unemployment rate? Wage growth?

The correct answer is "none of the above."

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.