Yellen Channeling Slick as Surrealistic Economy Shows ’67 Claims

The U.S. labor market is looking a little surreal these days.

Take the number of workers filing claims for unemployment benefits. As a share of the population, it’s the lowest since at least 1967 -- the year Grace Slick and her Jefferson Airplane bandmates dropped drug references in the San Francisco-spawned album Surrealistic Pillow, and 37 years before Janet Yellen became president of the region’s Federal Reserve bank. Yet the ranks of the long-term unemployed remain larger than at any time before the 2007-2009 recession.