Hidden workforce challenges domestic economic recovery

Bringing these workers back into the labor force could prove to be a tricky problem, both politically and economically. If they begin to seek work in an improving job market, they could increase the unemployment rate. That’s a scenario that will be tough for politicians headed into campaign season to explain, particularly since the rate is being used to excoriate Obama’s administration. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, for example, has made the unemployment rate the centerpiece of what he is now calling the Obama Misery Index.