5 As a result, estimates of the gap between actual and potential output often narrow over time, partly through higher actual output but also through lower estimates of potential. For example, figure 2 shows that the Congressional Budget Office has made a series of downward revisions to its estimates of potential output in recent years.
This indicates that many of those who have left the labour force are self-supporting, such as unemployed who are not members of an unemployment fund and who do not receive cash benefits. Others have left the country, for instance some of the migrant workers who came to Denmark from Eastern Europe during the boom.