That is why the jump in May's unemployment rate - from 7.2 percent to 7.5 percent, the highest during this business cycle - caused dismay. Yet this...

That is why the jump in May's unemployment rate - from 7.2 percent to 7.5 percent, the highest during this business cycle - caused dismay. Yet this may be missing the point. The number of people in the labor force in the month of May jumped by 330,000." The higher unemployment rate was probably caused by

a) a fall in employment b) a massive destruction of jobs 8

c) an increase in the participation rate

d) an increase in the number of discouraged workers