The people working in the sharing economy because they don't have other options for income get counted in employment statistics. The PhD working at starbucks ge

The people working in the sharing economy because they don't have other options for income get counted in employment statistics. The PhD working at starbucks gets counted in the employment statistics. People who are not actively seeking employment don't. The unemployment rate might be low, but the labor participation rate has been hovering around 63% since 2016. It was above 66% for most of the 90s through the early 2000s, until the financial crisis. Employment statistics are, at best, useful for comparing last year to this year, or last quarter to this quarter. They say little about the overall structure of the economy.