Most everyone agrees that 6.7 percent (or whatever last week's number is) isn't representative of anything anymore. The split as to why is more interesting.
I'm a proponent of the "growing structural unemployment is a part of the future" view.
More and more of my freelance clients are not including me on the books. Even those with full business, full payroll systems, a team of accountants, etc. who typically keep everything on the books. The lady I've been working for for years took me off 2 years ago. Less taxes for both of us - especially that SS tax.
I was about to because my full time employer had me on a 1099. It was fine when I was making less than 6K a year doing odd jobs for them. Once it turned into full time - not so much. Right about the time I realized how fucked I was getting, they threw me a bone and put me on w2/salary with a nice raise. I still gotta pay ~10k in taxes from those months though - more than half of that is SS! Fuck it.