At the time, a major preoccupation for the Bank was the possibility that people would be unemployed for so long that their skills would become less valuable—a process economists call labour market scarring. Fortunately, labour force participation rates have risen in all age groups.
This makes the recordlow unemployment rates we are seeing doubly impressive, especially given the setbacks we have had along the way, such as the drop in oil prices. This is not to argue that higher labour force participation is always a good thing.