The official jobless rate is so low the Fed thinks the economy is at full employment. But a gauge of the 'functionally unemployed' keeps climbing

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The Labor Department’s unemployment rate has been declining in recent months, reversing last year’s uptick, but an alternate measure tells a different story.

In July, the official rate dipped to 4.1%, down from 4.2% in June and 4.5% in November. This coming Friday, the August jobs report will come out, and Wall Street expects the rate to hold steady at 4.1% while payrolls expand by 50,000, rebounding from a surprise loss of 23,000 in July.