Yes. I agree. The basic ratio of the number of people working (or rather the number of hours worked) vs. the total size of the population is the number we shoul

Yes. I agree. The basic ratio of the number of people working (or rather the number of hours worked) vs. the total size of the population is the number we should be talking about. It is true that this number is affected by people retiring, newborns, immigrants but it basically shows how many (or few) that are producing the goods and services consumed by the whole population. The unemployment number is heavy politized and it is always easier for politicians to hire economists to design measurements that shows a lower unemployment than it is for politicians to actually implement measures that increase meaningful and sustainable employment. I think that the (western) world is in a development that will leave us with much lower employment for good. And this is due to the forces for globalization (such as outsourcing of jobs and manufacturing, global competition) and advances in technology (robots, information technology removing middle men and backoffice functions). Much more so than ageing or immigration. It is important that this becomes a bigger issue in public discourse otherwise we risk ending in bad place with too many people living of welfare and highly skewed wealth and income distribution.