The national unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent in February. The nation’s total number of workers with jobs dropped a bit, by 36,000. Normally, that’s bad, but in the shape we’re in, it’s actually nominally good news.

Here’s the number that jumped out at me in the new unemployment numbers: There were 1.2 million discouraged workers in February; that number had been 1.1 million in January and 929,000 in December.

A little more than a month ago, I made a short video, noting the rise in these “discouraged workers” who don’t show up in the official unemployment rate: