The number of people wanting work, but not looking for a job, has swelled in recent years. However, their flow rate back into unemployment has been declining, so they will likely only have a modest impact on the unemployment rate.

To help assess labor market conditions, two measures are proposed that show that the pace of improvement has recently increased, but two more years of similar improvement are needed to return conditions to historical averages.

Bundick and Hakkio use survey data to evaluate the stability of forecasters' long-term inflation expectations.

Troy Davig and Michael Redmond gauge the contributions of three factors to the declining U.S. federal budget deficit.