“If today the country had the same proportion of persons of working age employed as it did in 2000, the U.S. would have almost 14 million more people contributing to the economy. “
“Compare 2010 with October 2012, the last month for which food-stamp data have been reported. The unemployment rate fell to 7.8% from 9.6%, and real GDP was rising steadily if not vigorously. Food-stamp usage should have peaked and probably even begun to decline. Yet the number of recipients rose by 7,223,000. In a period of falling unemployment and rising output, the number of food-stamp recipients grew nearly 10,000 a day.”
Source
The wages of unemployment
http://www.aei.org/article/economics/the-wages-of-unemployment/
Not sure I understand the food stamp info as I’ve never said that was a good thing and those trends are all in the wrong direction as Obama has massive expanded the program...
The issue with the labor force participation rate is that baby boomers are now retiring. No matter who was president that rate would be declining as the population ages and the baby boomers make up the bulk of the labor force.