 One of the puzzles of the post-pandemic economy was the persistent gap in the US labor force participation rate, which sits about 1.5 full percentage points below 2019 levels.A new Fed report explains the gap with early retirements spurred by the pandemic.The increased retired share explains essentially all of the shortfall in the aggregate labor force participation rate compared to its level prior to the pandemic, the report says.This is an important question for polic... 