Numbers prior to March 2025 are Biden numbers. Recall that Trump didn’t take office until January 20, 2025.
The measurement is a survey(s). It’s non trivial.
Like so:
In the household survey (CPS), the BLS asks individuals aged 16 and over in sampled households a series of questions about their work and job search activities during the reference week, which is generally the week containing the 12th of the month. Key questions include whether the person did any work as a paid employee, worked in their own business or on their own farm, or worked without pay for at least 15 hours in a family business or farm during the reference week.
Fairly critical item in there. 16 and over. This hits the workforce participation rate as the elderly retire, but are still part of the denominator, as it were. Because of the baby boom bulge in the graphs, we have lowering participation rate, and people thinks that means the world has gone lazy. But it’s just demographics.