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92,594,000: Americans Not in Labor Force Hits All-Time Record; Participation Rate 36-Year Low
CNS News ^ | May 2, 2014 | Terence P. Jeffrey

Posted on 05/05/2014 8:05:29 AM PDT by xzins

A record 92,594,000 Americans were not in the labor force in April as the labor force participation rate matched a 36-year low of 62.8 percent, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In March, according to BLS's non-seasonally adjusted data, there were 91,630,000 Americans not in the labor force. In April, that increased by 964,000 people to an all-time record of 92,594,000. The previous record was 92,534,000, set in January of this year.

The BLS's seasonally-adjusted number for people not in the labor force--which was 92,018,00 for April--was also an all-time record. This was up 988,000 from the 91,030,000 seasonally adjusted number BLS said was not in the labor force in March. (The previous all-time seasonally-adjusted high for people not in the labor force was 91,8080,000, which occurred in December 2013.)

Labor Force Participation

"Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal how employment and unemployment change from month to month," says BLS. "These seasonal adjustments make it easier to observe the cyclical, underlying trend, and other nonseasonal movements in the series."

The seasonally adjusted labor force participation rated dropped from 63.2 percent in March to 62.8 percent in April, matching a 36-year low. Prior to October 2013, the labor force participation rate had not gone as low as 62.8 percent since March 1978. In the last seven months it has matched that low in three months--October 2013, December 2013 and April 2013.

BLS employment statistics are calculated using what BLS calls the civilian noninstitutional population. This includes all persons in the United States 16 and older, who are not on active duty in the military or in an institution such as a prison, nursing home, or mental hospital. The civilian noninstitutional population is divided into two basic parts: those in the labor force and those not in the labor force. To be in the labor force a person must either have a job or have actively sought a job in the last four weeks. A person not in the labor force is a person who neither had a job nor actively sought one. The unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force who actively sought a job in the past four weeks but did not get one.

Because of the way the unemployment rate is calculated, the rate can actually go down even when the number of people who are employed is also going down.

In April, the civilian noninstitutional population of people 16 and older was 247,439,000. Of these, according to BLS's seasonally adjusted numbers, 155,421,000 participated in the labor force (down 806,000 from the 156,227,000 who participated in the labor force in March). That yielded the labor force participation rate of 62.8 percent--matching the 36-year low.

Of the 155,421,000 who participated in the labor force in April, 145,669,000 were employed (meaning they had some kind of job, including both full- and part-time jobs), and 9,753,000 were unemployed (meaning they looked for a job and did not find one).

The 9,753,000 who looked for a job and did not find one, and thus were "unemployed," equaled 6.3 percent of the 155,421,000 still in the labor force--yielding an unemployment rate of 6.3 percent.

In March, in the then-larger civilian labor force of 156,227,000, there were 10,486,000 who actively sought a job and did not find one--yielding an unemployment rate of 6.7 percent.

In March, according to BLS's seasonally adjusted numbers, there were 145,742,00 people who were employed. In April, that dropped by 73,000 to 145,669,000.

Thus, in April, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped at the same time the number of people with jobs dropped. (In the BLS's non-seasonally adjusted data, the number of people employed increased by 677,000 from March to April, climbing from 145,090,000 to 145,767,000.)


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: employment; laborforce; notinlaborforce; obamanomics; obamarecession; obamataxhikes; participationrate; unemployment
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To: Dilbert San Diego
What do these people do all day? Hang out? Watch daytime TV? Go out in the streets and do God knows what?

The problem with these numbers is that they count people like my wife as not in the labor force.

My wife is a stay-at-home mom to our two young sons and she works a lot harder at her job than I do at mine. Though I do recognize that SAHMs are definitely in the minority these days.

Otherwise, good point.

21 posted on 05/05/2014 8:29:35 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: pabianice
I told's ya... she crazy!!!

22 posted on 05/05/2014 8:30:05 AM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: nascarnation

The 40% fake (and/or borrowed) money is unimaginable for you and me.

Banks would laugh at us if we wanted to borrow 40% of our income EVERY year.


23 posted on 05/05/2014 8:43:06 AM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: xzins

bump to the top


24 posted on 05/05/2014 9:20:29 AM PDT by GOPJ ( Are we finally going to get a smidgen of truth? - - Freeper Veto!)
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To: xzins
Apparently, some Americans are starting to wake and realize that the Obozo thugs in DC are bringing about a disaster for our economy. Shocking Finding for Dems in WaPo Poll.

What is even more amazing than the results, the poll was conducted and edited by the Obozo loving/adoring ComPost and ABC!

25 posted on 05/05/2014 9:22:17 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Herr Obama cannot divert resources from his war on Americans!)
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To: xzins; 4Liberty

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3151710/posts

Unemployment Drops to 0% as Last Worker Leaves Labor Force
The People’s Cube ^ | May 3, 2014 | Opiate of the People Posted by 4Liberty

Comrade Barack Obama today became the first to achieve a milestone coveted by enlightened central planners everywhere when the Bureau of Laborious Statistics announced the much-followed totally-meaningless “headline” U3 unemployment rate for last month was ZERO PERCENT! This means that the glorious economic recovery he engineered after the disastrous Bush years has now attained FULL EMPLOYMENT!

It is a tribute to Professor Obama that he was able to find the Holy Grail which eluded history’s greatest economic thinkers such as Lenin, Stalin and Mao. This landmark achievement along with his establishment of free healthcare for everyone via the Affordable Care Act cements his reputation as the Greatest Leader in this or any other universe for all time.

The dramatic moment occurred at 12:03 PM, four weeks to the day after Lyman Yilk, a pipe-fitter from Bittcling, Pa, finally gave up looking for work. Mr. Yilk has been unemployed since 2005 but was on a celebratory bender since the day after Mr. Obama’s first election and did not know that the Keystone Pipeline (which Mr. Yilk was hoping to find work on) had been cancelled due to environmental concerns. When he finally sobered up four weeks ago and learned the project was dead, he abandoned his search to find a job.

Mr. Yilk was the last worker to leave the labor force and turned the lights out as he left. According to the BLS definition:

Quote: U3: Official unemployment rate per the ILO definition occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks. Without Mr. Yilk, there was no one actively looking for work any longer, hence the U3 rate was now ZERO PERCENT, praise Obama!

Gloom-and-doom naysayers were quick to note that the labor force participation rate had also dropped to zero percent which (according to them) was not a good thing as it meant no one was employed. Comrade Nancy Pelosi countered their racist, straw-man argument brilliantly by observing that it also meant no comrade was any longer “job-locked” and each was free to be an artist, writer, hooker, etc, and pursue their passion.

“There is no underestimating this tremendous achievement of Barack Obama” said Paul Klugeman, an expert on hiding declines and fudging economic statistics as well being the self-proclaimed “Conscious Liberal”. “Comrade Obama has achieved the socialist dream of freeing all of The People ™ from the slavery of work and permitting them to live off of someone else’s dime as god, if he existed, would’ve wanted.”

Dr. Klugeman was asked if a problem would arise due to the fact that since no one was working, there would also be no one to pay for the benefits that all the non-workers were collecting.

“Nonsense”, he proclaimed. “The Fed will simply print money for artists and writers and hookers to use to buy things from China! What could go wrong?”

It seems so simple now, it’s a wonder no one ever thought of it sooner.

“The genius of Dear Leader Barack Obama lies in his simplicity”, said Dr. Klugeman.

We agree.


26 posted on 05/05/2014 9:23:38 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Herr Obama cannot divert resources from his war on Americans!)
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To: xzins
(I know this isn’t exact.)

It's not even close, since less than 11 million people or only 3.5% are over age 80. You estimated 20% or almost 6 times as many.

2012 population: 308.8 million
Under 18 years: 74.1 million (24%)
18-64 years: 193.2 million (62.6%)
65 years and over: 41.5 million (13.4%)

The US population is now up to 317.9 million.
The BLS includes 16 & 17 year olds in it's employment numbers. The current report states 247.4 million are age 16 and over.

In labor force: 154.8 million
--- Employed: 145.8 million (less than 46% of total population)
--- Unemployed: 9.1 million
Not in labor force: 92.6 million


27 posted on 05/05/2014 10:16:54 AM PDT by Brown Deer (Pray for 0bama. Psalm 109:8)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

The Obama Recession

goes hand in hand with

The Obama Tax Hikes


28 posted on 05/05/2014 11:04:13 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: xzins
The real unemployment chart vs. the media propaganda.
29 posted on 05/05/2014 12:04:54 PM PDT by Gen-X-Dad
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To: Brown Deer

Yes, it was a random estimate of all who wouldn’t be expected to be in the labor force. I added the total to about 120 million and pushed it down to about 90 million.

Using the chart it appears that it equals right around 100 million.

Pretty good estimate off the top of my head.


30 posted on 05/05/2014 3:07:42 PM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: xzins
And here's why.

Leviathan (Uncle Sam employs more people than you think)
National Review ^ | 02/03/2011 | Iain Murray
"...nearly 40 million Americans employed in some way by government."

About "70 million" people are receiving good incomes but are also steeped in debt and can't borrow more for big ticket items. Meanwhile,...

Heavy Hitters: Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2014
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php

American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $60,949,129 [Democrat] 81% [Republican] 1%”


31 posted on 05/05/2014 3:16:21 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: xzins; MrB

Please, tell me your opinions. Can’t we simply take the number of people of working age, determine the number of those that are not working and then determine the real unemployment rate? Am I missing something?


32 posted on 05/05/2014 7:04:04 PM PDT by houeto (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate)
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To: houeto

I agree with you. The number of people of working age divided by the number of those of working age not working should give the unemployment rate.

Do you think it would be more helpful to give the employment rate? The number of people of working age divided by the number of people who are employed.

And we’ll use as employment, the number of those who paid in the previous month on a personal social security account + those who have legally opted out of social security but also file for federal income tax.


33 posted on 05/06/2014 3:17:46 AM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: houeto

Your formula has a built in (Biblical) assumption that all who can work, should work.

Leftists, of course, being humanist, gnostic, anti-Christians,
twist this belief -

only those who want to work should be able to work.

That’s why the current admin calculates the UE rate the way they do - those who don’t want to work or have given up don’t count as unemployed.


34 posted on 05/06/2014 5:08:10 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Grampa Dave

Haha. Love it.
Thanks for re-posting!

Now I needs go find my Meds....
:(


35 posted on 05/09/2014 7:28:14 PM PDT by 4Liberty (Optimal institutions - optimal economy.)
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To: 4Liberty

“Haha. Love it.
Thanks for re-posting!”

Thanks. It is great, and I’m having fun re-posting it.


36 posted on 05/10/2014 7:27:55 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Herr Obama cannot divert resources from his war on Americans!)
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