23 Percent Of Americans In Their Prime Working Years Are Unemployed

TEC ^ | 03/29/2016 | Michael Snyder

[SeekAndFind]

Did you know that when you take the number of working age Americans that are officially unemployed (8.2 million) and add that number to the number of working age Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force” (94.3 million), that gives us a grand total of 102.5 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now? I have written about this before, but today I want to focus just on Americans that are in their prime working years. When you look at only Americans that are from age 25 to age 54, 23.2 percent of them are unemployed right now. The following analysis and chart come from the Weekly Standard…

Here’s a chart showing those in that age group currently employed (95.6 million) and those who aren’t (28.9 million):

“There are 124.5 million Americans in their prime working years (ages 25–54). Nearly one-quarter of this group—28.9 million people, or 23.2 percent of the total—is not currently employed. They either became so discouraged that they left the labor force entirely, or they are in the labor force but unemployed. This group of non-employed individuals is more than 3.5 million larger than before the recession began in 2007,” writes the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee.

Clearly, we have never recovered from the impact of the last recession.

But let’s try to put these numbers in context.

Below, I would like to share two charts with you. They show what has happened to the inactivity rates for men and for women in their prime working years in the United States in recent years.

In order to be considered “inactive”, you can’t have a job and you can’t be looking for a job. So this subset of people is smaller than the group that we were talking about above. The 23.2 percent of Americans in their prime working years that are unemployed right now includes those that are looking for a job and those that are not looking for a job.

These next two charts do not include anyone that has a job or that is currently looking for a job. These charts only cover “inactive” people in their prime working years that are not considered to be in the labor force.

As you can see in this first chart, the inactivity rate for men in their prime working years exploded higher during the last recession and then continued to go up even after the recession supposedly ended. At this point, it is hovering near all-time record highs. Does this look like an “economic recovery” to you?…

For women, we see a similar thing. In this next chart, you can see that the inactivity rate for women in their prime working years rose during the last recession and then just kept on rising. At this point, it remains far higher than it was during the last recession…

What are we to make of all this?

For both men and women in their prime working years, the inactivity rate is significantly higher than it was during the last recession.

All of these people neither have a job nor are they looking for one.

So what in the world is going on here?

Are they independently wealthy?

Have these people found rich spouses to marry so they don’t have to work?

No, the truth is that the middle class in America is steadily eroding and poverty is absolutely exploding. Credit card debt has soared to a new record high, and 48 percent of all U.S. adults under the age of 30 believe that “the American Dream is dead”.

The issue isn’t that people don’t want to work.

The issue is that people cannot find enough work.

And even if you have a job, that does not mean that you are on easy street. According to the Social Security Administration, 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year.

Tens of millions of Americans are now among the ranks of “the working poor”. So many families are watching their expenses soar while their paychecks go down or stagnate. If you are in this situation right now, then you probably know how exceedingly stressful it can be.

Just look at what is happening to the cost of health insurance. The following comes from Fox News…

Health insurance premiums have increased faster than wages and inflation in recent years, rising an average of 28 percent from 2009 to 2014 despite the enactment of Obamacare, according to a report from Freedom Partners.

And I am not exactly sure where they got those numbers. Personally, I know that my health insurance rates have gone up far faster than that.

Two years ago, my health insurance company wanted to double the health insurance premiums for my family even though we never get sick. So I switched to another insurance company that offered a policy that was only about 30 percent higher than my last one. But then when it came time to renew, that insurance company wanted to raise my rate by another 50 percent.

Thanks to Obamacare, American families are being absolutely crippled by the cost of health care. And of course we are seeing the rising cost of living so many other places as well. Our paychecks are being squeezed harder and harder, and this is absolutely killing the middle class. In fact, the middle class in America is now a minority for the first time ever.

And now for the real bad news – this is about as good as things are ever going to get in this country. As you can see from what I have shared above, we never really had any sort of meaningful “economic recovery”, and now we have entered the early phases of the next major downturn.

So where do we go from here? Unfortunately, our debt-fueled prosperity has provided us with a massively inflated standard of living that is not even close to sustainable. As this bubble bursts, the economic pain is going to be absolutely unprecedented.

But it won’t be just economic pain that we are facing. In my new book, I detail the things that I believe that are coming to this country, and I explain why the entire planet will soon be facing incredibly challenging times. It is going to be one of the most controversial Christian books of 2016, because it directly challenges many of the things that are being taught in mainstream churches today. My book is an ominous message of warning and an inspiring message of hope, and I truly believe that it is the most important thing that I have ever written.

No matter how you may see the future, the key is that we all learn to love one another. The years ahead are going to be extremely challenging, and those that want to chase everyone else away and survive as lone wolves are going to have a very rough time. We all need each other, and those that have friends, family and communities around them are going to be in a much better position to weather the coming storms.

So let us hope for the best, but let us also prepare for the worst…

[Hotlanta Mike]

The Obama legacy...hope and change crashed and burned.

[A CA Guy]

How many are under educated or detached from the mainstream culture to the point they are unemployable?

[Mr Apple]

Americans that are officially unemployed (8.2 million)

Good job mullah. Good job demonrats.

[dfwgator]

No no no no, it’s “Funemployment”, you know now they can do all those things they couldn’t do before because they were working.

[Don Corleone]

The Obama legacy...hope and change crashed and burned.

This was part of Obama's master plan to destroy the USA and open it up to a new Muslim Caliphate. While we are failing, he is succeeding beyond his wildest dreams.

[Menehune56]

Over 50 salaried employees are an endangered species who have little hope of finding an equivalent position should they be laid off. These are the years when you were supposed to make up the money spent raising a family. I found this out the hard way.

[grania]

how many are undereducated or detached from the mainstream culture to the point they are unemployable

It would be amazing how quickly they would find enough of a job for survival if (1) the freebies didn't far exceed what an entry-level job provides and (2) a life of crime, drug dealing, etc weren't enabled

I once had a very nice conversation with a woman approximately my age. Her 24 year old son wanted to spend more years vegging while getting another degree. With the wisdom of having been brought up in a challenging environment, she pointed out that if a man isn't responsible for holding a responsible job and taking on some family obligations by the age of 25 or so, he'll have a real hard time ever becoming a responsible adult. What our "civilization" has created is for over a generation now a very large population that are forever-children.

[agincourt1415]

Or how about this. The unemployed OVER EDUCATED. The unemployed spent money, took out student loans, that they have no job to repay the loan, and they are going to school to get Master Degrees.

We don't have an economy. What we have is stagnation.

[GreyFriar]

butttttt, this is the best economy ever........... (balderdash)

[rdcbn]

In addition to the 8.2 million officially unemployed, there are another 7-8 million unemployed who the Obama Administration has fraudulently enrolled in Social Security Long Term Disability program after their 99weeks of enhanced unemployment payments ran out and they could not find jobs.

Obama did this to hide the true unemployment rate and keep millions of unemployed hidden from sight to give the American people the false impression of economic recovery.

This huge added burden has drained the SS Disability Fund to the point where it soon will become insolvent

[Mr Apple]

Obama did this to hide the true unemployment rate and keep millions of unemployed hidden from sight to give the American people the false impression of economic recovery.

Didn't our Mullah tell us that his administrations (2) would be transparent.

[Lizavetta]

No no no no, it’s “Funemployment”, you know now they can do all those things they couldn’t do before because they were working.

Like learning to paint and write poetry!

While you starve.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I was three months short of 52 when the company I was working for closed in 2009 due to the recession. I was making about $65,000 at the time, after working in my field for 29 years. Plus I had side jobs so my total income a higher. Since that time I have applied for dozen of jobs and had one interview for a full time job making about $46,000 100 miles away from my home for which I have not been offered a position.

Other than the side jobs I still manage to get, I am making about $28,000 in a job that needs no education at all. It’s all I can find.

[A CA Guy]

Over educated in what?

Even enginers need specialties to be employed.

History and art majors might as well use their diplomas in many cases to roll up something to smoke.

[Texas resident]

It is the best economy ever
and the recession/depression ended in 2009

In D.C.

They always seem to forget that qualifier.

[Pelham]

Outsourcing and increased global trade has made us all richer. If we had a million more H1-Bs and illegals we would be richer still. That’s the party line. Learn it.

[Sam Gamgee]

Of course, which is why I go with the shadow statistics website numbers over the BS the government is serving.

[Sam Gamgee]

And a $15 minimum wage will simply cause employers to forsake or fire all their junior under age 25 workers and replace them with experienced and older workers.

[agincourt1415]

Oh, yeah, Washington D.C. the Boom Town!