Low unemployment is not drawing discouraged workers back into the job hunt, according to a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City that undercuts one of the positive narratives about the labor market.

While the labor force participation rate has been rising, the research note from economists Didem Tuzemen and Jonathan Willis concluded that increase is attributable to fewer people leaving the workforce and older workers delaying retirement, not because people who gave up on work during the recession are coming back.