The headline figure of 12,000 jobs from the latest labor-market report is getting all the attention - but as usual, the much more interesting stuff is buried in the fine print.
In this case it's about the job market for seniors, and especially for senior men, and most especially for men over 70.
It's booming. Older men are pouring back into the workforce.
Some 144,000 men over 70 rejoined the labor force last month, dwarfing the headline "nonfarm payrolls" figure for the whole economy by a factor of 12. That's on top of the 191,000 men over 70 who rejoined in September.
There are now a record 3.15 million men over 70 working in America.
The numbers for women over 70, and for both sexes age 65 to 69, were largely flat last month.
The U.S. Labor Department says that among men age 70 to 74, nearly one in four is now working. Among men age 75 and over, that figure is nearly one in eight. Both those numbers are near the record levels seen just before the COVID-19 crisis.
That big "great retirement" wave that struck in early 2020, when lots of older Americans took advantage of the pandemic to quit the workforce? It's not just over. It's gone in reverse.
The wave of so-called "unretirement" has now taken senior employment pretty much back to where it was before the pandemic.
"While we're still digging into the data, here's what we know from recent years," Carly Roszkowski, vice president of financial resilience at AARP, tells me. "During the pandemic, older Americans left the workforce in larger numbers than expected. Most likely, we're now seeing some of those same workers returning to jobs, rather than new people entering the labor force."
We don't yet have data on how many of the over-65s, or the over-70s, are working part-time and full-time.
Some of those coming back into the workforce are doing so because they need the money. But many others are coming back because they are healthier in their 70s than they had expected to be, and because they are bored sitting around at home.
"Roughly half (48%) of those working in retirement felt they needed to work for financial reasons, while a similar portion (45%) chose to work for social and emotional benefits," Judith Ward, director of thought leadership at investment firm T. Rowe Price, wrote after the firm published a survey of "unretired" people earlier this year.
"People may boomerang back into the workforce because of either financial challenges or to add more structure and purpose back into their lives," says Kelly LaVigne, vice president of consumer insights at life-insurance giant Allianz.
Now read: Older workers are sticking around - what does that mean for their younger colleagues?
The rise in consumer prices in the past three years has certainly put pressure on household budgets, including those of the over-65 crowd. But that wouldn't explain the rush into the workforce in the last few months, when those price increases have finally abated. Nor would it explain why older men but not older women were coming back into the workforce in such great numbers.
Seniors enjoy some protection against inflation because of Social Security's annual cost-of-living adjustments.
And if men over 70 are only working in large numbers because of inflation, why were their numbers also booming in 2019 and 2020, when inflation was largely flat?
The booming employment numbers for seniors comes during the year known as "Peak 65," when - thanks to the baby boom generation - more Americans are turning 65 than ever before.
Read: More than 4 million people are turning 65 this year, and it will affect you
If people, particularly men, are going back into the workforce in their 70s, they might want to think twice about taking early retirement in the first place. We are living longer than ever before and we are healthier for longer as well. Twenty-five or 30 years is a long time to play golf and watch the world go to hell in a handcart on your favorite doom, gloom and panic cable TV "news" channel.
If people who quit working in their early to mid-60s start claiming Social Security around the same time, they're also missing out on the higher payments they would get if they waited until age 70 to start claiming.
Allianz found in a recent survey that nearly half of Americans now expect a slow transition into retirement.
As Allianz's LaVigne says, those heading into retirement should have "a detailed financial strategy that outlines how you will fund your retirement and draw down on saved assets." But, he adds, "at the same time, you should also think about how you will spend your time after leaving the workforce."
Otherwise we might retire too early - which can mean lower lifetime earnings and lower monthly Social Security checks - only to end up going back to work again at age 70 because we are bored out of our minds.
-Brett Arends
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