Posted on 05/06/2016 7:30:05 AM PDT by xzins
The number of Americans not in the labor force last month totaled 94,044,000, 562,000 more than in March -- and the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.8 percent (near a 38-year low), following four straight months of slight improvement.
When President Obama took office in Janaury 2009, the labor force partipation rate was 65.7 percent, after hovering in the 66-67 percent range for much of the George W. Bush presidency.
The recession inherited by the Obama administration officially ended in June 2009, but the labor force participation rate continued to drop during Obama's two terms, hitting 62.4 percent in September 2015, its lowest point in 38 years.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the economy added 160,000 jobs in April (compared with 215,000 in March). Over the prior 12 months, employment growth had averaged 232,000 per month.
The April unemployment rate held steady at 5.0 percent. (It was also 5.0 percent in March, up a tenth of a point from the 4.9 percent in January and February.)
In April, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population, consisting of all people 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 252,969,000. Of those, 158,924,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one.
The 158,924,000 who participated in the labor force equaled 62.8 percent of the 252,969,000 civilian noninstitutional population.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 5,793,000 people in April as "persons who currently want a job," up from 5,712,000 in March.
AD FEEDBACK
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for Hispanics increased to 6.1 percent in April, while the rates for adult men (4.6 percent), adult women (4.5 percent), teenagers (16.0 percent), Whites (4.3 percent), Blacks (8.8 percent), and Asians (3.8 percent) showed little or no change.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 150,000 to 2.1 million in April. These individuals accounted for 25.7 percent of the unemployed.
The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was about unchanged in April at 6.0 million and has shown little movement since November. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.
In April, 1.7 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, down by 400,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
Among the marginally attached, there were 568,000 discouraged workers in April, down by 188,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.1 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in April had not searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.
Let’s push for President Trump to push for real statistics on employment and unemployment in the USA.
Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.
The three winning topics for the general election.
If these 94 million people were put back to work, federal tax revenues would increase by roughly $2 trillion dollars per year.
The amount of increased community spending, state and local taxation would be phenomenal.
We would see our nation grow like China is now.
This needs to happen folks.
“Let’s push for President Trump to push for real statistics on employment and unemployment in the USA.”
Don’t worry, the msm will see the light as soon as any non-deomocrat lands in the white house. I watch Robert Reich posts on fb and he is even beginning to raise the discussion of homelessness as if it is a new thing. Tent cities have been cropping up since obama was voted in but one would never know it by the msm.
I’ll say this for Bernie Sanders. He’s the only Democrat with the guts to say that all the happy-talk economic statistics out of Washington are baloney. That real unemployment is at least twice the official rate. His solutions are terrible of course. He’s like a doctor who accurately diagnoses your illness and then prescribes leeches.
If he does that, the unemployment rate will immediately jump to 25% or more, and he'll be blamed for causing the worst jump in unemployment in history.
He'll probably be blamed for causing a depression on his first day in office. That fact will go down in history.
Trickle down poverty.
I’m hoping Trump will hammer home these numbers on the road to the general.
Did not Hillary say she’ll be a continuation of obama? Then specifically calling out the failed policies of obama, and 8 years of cooked numbers to cover it up, will also implicate Hillary.
It also won't be long before we start hearing how zero percent interest rates are hurting people on fixed incomes. I predict this becomes a national crisis January 21, 2017.
Every manufacturing job probably supports another service job. Although I have never seen a study on the ratio of manufacturing to service jobs supported/created. Nobody cares to study such pedestrian things.
He should CONTINUE proclaiming the real unemployment rate throughout the general campaign. He’s been already telling the truth about it through the general.
I can think of no good reason not to count unemployed people as unemployed people.
And, I think a part time job should count only as “half” of a job.
The Labor Force Participation Rate hasn’t budged by much since the 2008 financial crisis. It’s been hovering between 62% and 63% since that time.
Are you pretty sure about those numbers?
That guarantees We the People would put maximum pressure on the next Congress to implement the Trump plan of recovery.
So true. Know way too many college grads who are working temp jobs and supplementing their incomes with a second job at nights and weekends in fast food and retail. Not a good situation.
Every manufacturing job also support a couple of supplier jobs, too. A sewing machine factory has to buy nuts and bolts someplace. (And other items)
If the American People could actually do math, Obama would be seeking asylum on some third-world resort island.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.