Seldom has the unemployment rate been so low while public dissatisfaction has been so high. In 2000, when the unemployment rate was below 5%, just 37% of the country was dissatisfied with the way things were going, according to the Gallup organization. In 1988, the unemployment rate was 5.5% and a minority of the country, 47%, were dissatisfied.

With the latest jobs report pegging unemployment at 4.9%, Americans should be similarly satisfied, yet an astounding 69% tell Gallup that they’re dissatisfied with the way things are going.

One big reason the official statistics show a low unemployment rate is because so many people have quit looking for work. A recent Harris Poll conducted for my company, which places people in jobs, showed that 43% of the unemployed have given up looking. The labor-force participation rate today stands at 62.7%, stuck at levels not seen since the late 1970s, before women fully entered the workforce

Employers know that the real rate of unemployment is higher than 4.9%. People who aren’t looking for a job don’t get counted when the government calculates the unemployment rate, but they count when employers decide what wages to pay. So employers today don’t feel pressure to increase wages as they would if the unemployment rate were truly low.

Economists say that some decline in labor-force participation was expected. After all, the baby-boomer generation is reaching retirement age, and a greater number of younger Americans are pursuing higher education. But economists didn’t expect this much of a decline. According to a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, less than half of the decline from 2007 to 2014 can be explained by long-term demographic trends like an aging population and increased schooling among the young.