Why did the U.S. unemployment rate fare better than gdp growth?

That is a new paper by Bob Hall (you must scroll down to get to the pdf), here is the abstract:

Answer: Between 2007 and 2014, GDP growth was held back by shortfalls of
 4.4 percent in productivity
 4.0 percent in capital input
 3.6 percent in labor-force participation
 2.2 percent in growth of the working-age population

Any further questions you might have?

There are other interesting macro papers at the link, and hat tip goes to Greg Mankiw.