One of the data points that really popped in Friday’s jobs report is the labor force participation rate. After not budging for about six months, it rose two-tenths of a percentage point to 62.8%.

The rate is now the highest it’s been since the pandemic hit, when participation plummeted. Many American workers were laid off or got sick, and others retired early or otherwise left the labor force altogether — at least for a while.

Now, it seems like a lot of them are finally coming back and new folks are entering. While labor force participation overall hasn’t quite caught up to pre-pandemic levels, it’s getting pretty darn close.

“Labor force participation” is one of those economic terms that can kind of fly by your brain without sticking, so let’s try a simple definition: It’s the percentage of adults — age 16 and up — who have a job or are actively looking for one. The statistic doesn’t include people in the military or in prison or the elderly in nursing homes.

In general, we want greater labor force participation because it means more people are producing goods and services and making money, or at least trying to.

So here’s what’s been happening: “More Americans entered the labor force looking for work in August,” said Bill Adams at Comerica Bank.

That pushed labor force participation up, but also unemployment, he said. “In an economy experiencing labor shortages, a higher unemployment rate is a sign that there are more workers out looking for jobs, which is good news.”

Participation has been rising among people 55 and older and among women 25 to 54 — many of whom stopped working when child care and schooling got so hard in the pandemic, noted Becky Frankiewicz at staffing firm ManpowerGroup.

“We’ve done a lot of research with women, as well as returning retirees, and what has caused them to come back into the labor force is one, the pay — ‘I can make more money.’ But two is the flexibility — part-time, full-time or, even more, the hybrid opportunity for workplace and home,” she said.

Other groups are boosting the labor force too, said Bill Adams. That includes immigrants, for example. “And then we’re also seeing a big increase in labor force participation among Americans with disabilities,” he said.

Because, Adams said, it has become easier to work from home with assistive devices. Commuting is no longer required for many jobs, removing another physical barrier.

More teenagers looked for work in August, though not a lot of them found it right away. That’s a risk, said The Conference Board’s Dana Peterson.

“We have to keep an eye on that, if we continue to see people jumping in but still not being able to work.”

Because it could drive up unemployment — especially long-term unemployment — down the road.