While the government will no doubt spin today's JOLTS report as showing significant employment gains, a quick dissection of the numbers shows a far more muddied and inconsistent picture.

Despite job openings decreasing by over 500,000 to 10.6 million, there are still 3.7 million more jobs than unemployed people, result of unemployment shrinking as well.

As a result, the number of unemployed persons per job opening remains 0.7.

Moreover, the labor force participation rate inched up to a still anemic 61.8%. While it is the highest rate since the pandemic, it is only 0.1 above April's 61.7%.

Not only has labor force participation not recovered from the original lockdowns in 2020, it has been largely unchanged since the summer of 2020.

No amount of government spin will alter the reality that the US economy remains distorted and unbalanced from the lockdowns, and that there is still, nearly 18 months later, no strong trend of improvement.

We're still paying for the lockdowns, and will be for quite some time to come.