Labor Force Participation Rate Dropped to 62.8% In April: 94,044,000 Out

CNS NEWS ^ | 6 May 16 | Susan Jones

[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.

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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.

[RayofHope]

“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.”

This represents a 3.3% drop in the participation rate since Obummer took office or 8,347,977 million folks that have dropped out of the labor force. No wonder they can show a 5% unemployment rate..........

[sheana]

Those are not winning topics until we make it hard to be unemployed. When welfare clients are actually making more than working people (with all the goodies just handed to them) there is no incentive to work. In fact the incentive is negative.

[justlurking]

If these 94 million people were put back to work, federal tax revenues would increase by roughly $2 trillion dollars per year.

Don't forget that 94 million includes people that choose not to work, like my wife and I. We retired early, voluntarily. We aren't "rich", but we have enough to maintain our current standard of living indefinitely.

Some people choose not to work because the government provides for them. You won't get them back to work unless they want a better standard of living, and can get a job that pays well enough. However, that's a difficult proposition when the combination of state and federal benefits requires a $60,000/year job to replace them.

Don't get me wrong: I know there are lots of people out there that would like a productive job, or at least a better one than the part-time barista job they have now. But, the labor participation rate peaked at 67.3% at the end of the dot-com boom in 2000. It's not likely to get any higher than that, especially with the baby-boomers reaching the end of their careers.

I'm not sure how long this image will last: However, if we were to achieve the previous peak of 67.3% with today's population, that would be an additional 11.3 million jobs.

[Leaning Right]

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.

Yep. Sanders appears to be an honest man. From what I can tell, 1/3 of Bernie supporters are wannabe socialists, 1/3 are wannabe hippies, and 1/3 are regular folks who are upset about the economy.

With a little finesse Trump can capture that last 1/3.

[Faith65]

WOW!

BKMK!

[xzins]

Notice the sharp increase in the mid-60’s.

It suggests counting the numbers differently before that time and after that time. I don’t really know what it is.

Females entering the job force???

[central_va]

I was thinking the factory supported the dry cleaner, the butcher etc....

[kingu]

Funny thing is, I just said the same thing on another thread (abet with different wording.) We do need to fix that social disaster. But without jobs, there will be little incentive to stop the riots that would come from taking away the free stuff.

[Jane Long]

Coaching great Lou Holtz was on FBN, yesterday, and reminded folks that we have LESS people working today, than we did 40 years ago!!!

Trump needs to beat this drum loud and often.

Here’s a link to Lou’s great interview that covered many topics, including Vicente Fox calling Trump a racist, Mexico’s SOUTHERN wall, and more....

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4880448241001/lou-holtz-if-you-dont-have-borders-you-have-no-country-whatsoever/?#sp=show-clips

[xzins]

Exactly. I agree with that. And the hamburger joint, and the grocery store, etc.

One manufacturing company supports an awful lot of other jobs. And our gop-e thinks sending jobs overseas is a great idea.

They are highly educated idiots.

[ichabod1]

On the other hand, Trump will have no compunctions at all about laying the blame for obola’ mess directly in the lap of the rats and radicals. But I repeat myself.

[Sicon]

Why work when you can have an Obamaphone, Obamahome, Obamacare, Obamacable, and Obamacar, all paid for by the 62% of suckers who are working?

[NYRepublican72]

It’s time for Recovery Summer 8.0 (TM).

At least the Kenyan and his economy-destroying cronies will be gone next year.

[Flick Lives]

You’re not unemployed. You’re just not participating!

[DungeonMaster]

A few days ago I was bicycling to work in my steel toe boots and one of the 94,000,000 was sitting on a porch looking at a huge smart phone. He starts waving me over while looking at the phone so I assumed there was some funny or amazing thing he wanted to show me. He walks down the sidewalk in a robe and socks toward me. Then he says "Hey buddy, do you got some change for a cigarette". Are you F'n kidding me!!!

His type will NEVER go to work unless it is a requirement for the next government check to pretend to work for a few weeks. Sorry for whoever hires him.

[justlurking]

From what I can tell, 1/3 of Bernie supporters are wannabe socialists, 1/3 are wannabe hippies, and 1/3 are regular folks who are upset about the economy.

I'm not sure about your proportions. But, I'll point out that all of them are economically illiterate.

This is the case for the kids of some of our friends. They just aren't old enough to understand. The public schools don't tell them that EVERY experiment with socialism has failed. It just doesn't work, and degenerates into an authoritarian regime in a last-ditch effort to make it work. (See Venezuela for the latest example)

They think that European welfare states are "socialism", and can't see that there's still a capitalist economy underneath that funds it. But, absent an external funding source (like Norway's off-shore oil wells), it drags down the entire economy and all will eventually join Greece in bankruptcy.

We still have a better standard of living in the US, despite Obama's attempts to drag us down. But, none of them can see that. I encourage them to watch "House Hunter's International" to see what it costs to rent an apartment not much bigger than a closet in European countries.

[xzins]

Sometimes I wonder if the economy crashing wouldn’t be the best thing to happen to this country.

You can’t give an ObamaPhone if you can’t pay for an ObamaPhone in some manner.

[xzins]

The socialists won’t tolerate thes deadbeats once they gain dictatorial power. They’ll use these jerks to gain power, but after that it’s Mao and Stalin solutions. Gulag or execution or starvation. They weren’t nice ole Bernie Sanders types.

[Leaning Right]

Old Soviet joke, updated (by me) for today's American youth:

Youth: What is socialism?
Socialist: It's like this. If a neighbor owns two IPads, he must give you one.
Youth: I don't have an IPad. Socialism sounds great!

Socialist: And if a neighbor owns two flat screen TVs, he must give you one.
Youth: I don't have a flat screen TV. Socialism sounds great!

Socialist: And if a neighbor owns two cars, he must give you one.
Youth: Socialism doesn't sound very good.
Socialist (surprised): Why is that?
Youth: My family owns two cars.

[DungeonMaster]

The socialists won’t tolerate thes deadbeats once they gain dictatorial power. They’ll use these jerks to gain power, but after that it’s Mao and Stalin solutions. Gulag or execution or starvation. They weren’t nice ole Bernie Sanders types.

There are many types of useful idiots aren't there? There are the millions who vote for a living, there are the thugs who will brutalize people for free beer, there are ISIS types who will rape and kill for child sex. The various powers that be have millions of them all separated into various categories.