Americans "Not In The Labor Force" Plunge By A Record 736,000

Zero Hedge ^ | 02/03/2017

[SeekAndFind]

While Trump has personally expressed skepticism about the validity of the payrolls report, and especially the seasonally adjusted Establishment Survey, one aspect of the jos report he has been especially focused on is the number of people who are out of the labor force for economic reasons or otherwise: this is the infamous 95 million number that he brings up every time the strength of the "Obama recovery" has been mentioned. Which is why we are confident Trump will be happy to learn that in January, while the US economy added some 227K jobs according to the Establishment Survey, the Household Survey showed that the number of people not in the labor force tumbled by a whopping 736,000, the biggest drop in our series history, bringing the number of Americans not in the labor force to 94,366.

Curiously, a driver of this move is that the civilian non-institutional population reportedly declined by 660K, declining to 254,082K, which we attribute to the annual benchmark revisions in the jobs report.

One of the direct consequences of this move is that the unemployment rate went up as the civilian labor force grew from 159,640K to 159,716K even as the number of Employed workers - per the household survey - actually declined by 30,000 to 152,081.

It also means that the Labor Participation Rate rose from 62.7% to 62.9%, the highet print since September.

[JPJones]

“Curiously, a driver of this move is that the civilian non-institutional population reportedly declined by 660K, declining to 254,082K, which we attribute to the annual benchmark revisions in the jobs report.
One of the direct consequences of this move is that the unemployment rate went up...”

Looks like a manufactured outlier.

Are climate scientists migrating to the labor dept?

[PGR88]

Ask yourself - what is it about our economy, government or monetary system that allows 95 million working-age adults to simply stay home? yes, some are disabled or sick, some may have informal or cash jobs. Some live off their relatives.

But otherwise, how are so many able to support themselves doing nothing?

[AndyTheBear]

Its a two pronged attack: The progressives make it both hatder to run a business and employee people, and easier to scrape by as a hepless ward of the state. They like dependents, not free citizens.

[Angels27]

I will call this a “Trump Optimism Boom”.

[LS]

Consider: Trump was 750,000 votes from winning SEVEN more states:
CO
NM
NV
NH
MN
VA
ME

[FreedomNotSafety]

Borrowed money. The US borrows massive amount of money to feed the welfare recipients and to feed the government bureaucracy. If ever the world quits lending money to the US, or just giving us free or nearly free stuff, the gravy train will derail.

China is a great example. They subsidize their exports, almost as if they are taping dollar bills on their goods, and then use the dollars they get to buy our debt. That debt in turn steadily erodes in value. If they are lucky they can use some of the debt to pay vastly inflated prices for Hollywood studios.

One day China, and others, will collapse and US welfare recipients and the vast number of non-working citizens will feel the pain.

[9YearLurker]

Where did these 660K people go?

[Jane Long]

🤔

[ecomcon]

They want the jobless rate to report higher. Swamp Things in charge of numbers.

[Auntie Dem]

Why would China want to buy Hollyweird studios? To make movies glorifying communists and communism? Hollyweird is already doing that for them. Why buy the cow when you get the milk free?

[FreedomNotSafety]

Good one! The point is when you accept dollars for goods and services you must also spend those dollars on things priced in dollars.

[oincobx]

>>>Ask yourself - what is it about our economy, government or monetary system that allows 95 million working-age adults to simply stay home?

46 million of that number are over 65 and 13 million are 16-19.

[PfromHoGro]

Or like the ABC radio news reported this morning “..proof that President Trump INHERETED a robust economy.”.

Shameless, as usual, and completely expected.

[goodnesswins]

Ok...WHO exactly is still producing these numbers with the bureaucracy?

[JPJones]

“They want the jobless rate to report higher. Swamp Things in charge of numbers. “

The truth is when the economy gets better, and more people go back to work, the unemployment rate rises.

This is because the participation rate goes up.

But the latter fact is left out of the Headlines when a republican is prez.