Posted on 07/07/2015 7:31:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
Is America hard at work? Or hardly working?
I ask this because Thursday's Labor Department report for June found yet another 430,000 Americans of working age (16 and older) dropped out of the workforce.
Over the last year, only 1.3 million Americans of working age have entered the workforce, even as the population of this same demographic increased by more than 2.8 million. Just over 1 million members of this group found jobs. That's right -- of the new additions to the working age population, less than four in 10 found jobs.
The newspapers touted the reduction in the unemployment rate to 5.3 percent as a cause for celebration. Yet for every three Americans added to the working age population (16 and older), only around one new job (1.07) has been created under Obama. At this pace, America will soon officially have a zero unemployment rate. But that will only be because no one will be looking for work.
Here's the story the media didn't report. There are now more than 100 million Americans over the age of 16 that are not working. Usually when the economy picks up, American workers who have been laid off stampede back into the workforce to earn a paycheck. Now we have a better job market with fewer workers.
This is partially explained by baby boomers retiring. But the largest reduction in the workforce has been among the millennials. Today the labor force participation rate for the 16 to 24 age group is 55.1 percent, down from 60.8 percent a decade ago and more than 66 percent back in the late 1990s. We're headed toward becoming Greece, where half the young people don't work.
No one knows for sure why the labor force has shrunk so much under Obama. But it's a good bet that policy mistakes have played a big role.
Minimum wage increases are pricing the young out of the workforce. Welfare programs are effectively paying people not to work. Too many Americans have high school and even college degrees that are next to worthless to employers.
Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Rand Paul and other Republicans say that America could and should strive for 4 percent growth -- up from the pitiful 2 percent of the last six years. But this will certainly require a growing workforce. We need at least 10 million more Americans working to get growth up to 4 percent -- which happened under presidents Reagan and Clinton. And to get there we need national policies that reward work and discourage idleness.
Which brings us to the paradox of the American economy. We have 10 percent of the workforce unemployed, in part-time work or dropped out of the workforce at a time when businesses say they can't find willing workers. Wages were flat last month -- so higher pay isn't going to induce a stream of workers into jobs.
Some say the problem is we are such a rich nation that Americans value leisure more than work. I doubt that's the problem. If the great American work ethic is gone, it's only because dumb anti-work government policies have stolen it.
Hey, why not? Why should anyone have to work to support themselves? Why shouldn't young people be able to "find themselves" while the government supports them? The rich can afford to pay more taxes to support everyone. In fact, the greedy bastards aren't paying their fair share now!!
100 million American not working?
Okay, what about the Americans that AREN’T in the GOVERNMENT?..............
Is it true that the new people entering the demographic are not seeking unemployment so they don’t get counted in the U3 or U6 unemployment?
and Libs will tell you the Labor Participation Rate includes 98 year olds. Where do they come up with this carp?
Well that would make it 200 million,wouldn’t it?
Engorge the Lumpenproletariat.
It’s been part of their platform for decades.
Best way to bring down private enterprise and take control.
It’s liberal logic.
Unemployment must be around 30% now.
Pretty much...................;^)
They will soon be drinking ouzo and waving blue and white flags.
Odd how every illegal that comes here can find a job, but not people who are born here.........................
Drink enough ouzo and you will be waving all on your own without a flag.......................
No, the ones who have dropped out and gave up looking for jobs because they can’t find any, are ignored and not counted
That statement makes no sense.
Those are not “policy mistakes”. It is all part of a very deliberate plan.
“109,631,000 Americans lived in households that received benefits from one or more federally funded “means-tested programs” — also known as welfare — as of the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/354-percent-109631000-welfare
100 million Americans not working - how many illegal aliens for all countries are working????
I searched yesterday and most places say workers age 16 and up. Although a few said 16-64. So honestly I don’t know where they come up with the stuff they spew.
> and Libs will tell you the Labor Participation Rate includes 98 year olds. Where do they come up with this carp?
They make it up as they go along. You know they are more educated and hence more intelligent than us and tge should make the decsions right?.../s
Not a lick of common sense in any of ‘em. Go back a hundred and fifty years before all the modern conveniences and those very same people would be the ones crying out for help wanting us to save them from Injuns...
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