Fewer people in the work force, how do they eat?
They live off dwindling savings. They take early retirement. They are 2-income couples who become 1-income couples. People move in with their parents. People move in with friends. They take equity out of their homes. They live off skyrocketing credit card debt. They sell assets like 2nd cars or boats. They go back to school on student loans. The sell their collections on e-bay. They leave the country (illegal immigrants going back home.) They get subsistence jobs in the shadow economy, off the books. They borrow money from family and friends. My brother is still getting $1500 per month from my mother to pay for his food and rent, yet he is NOT COUNTED in the unemployment statistics.
The official "unemployment" numbers miss huge numbers of people who aren't drawing unemployment or being counted otherwise.