[kevkrom]

Just last month, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported finding 243,000 new jobs, they also reported in the same release that an additional 1.2 million workers had dropped out of the work force altogether

This is somewhat misleading. Last month's job report was the first to include population changes as indicated by the 2010 census. That adjusted both the labor force and non-labor force sizes.

Don't get me wrong, it's still bad, but that "1.2 million" number shouldn't get bandied about so much because it can and will be counter-attacked factually, which obscures the real issue: the plummeting labor participation rate due to lack of jobs.

[justlurking]

This is somewhat misleading. Last month's job report was the first to include population changes as indicated by the 2010 census. That adjusted both the labor force and non-labor force sizes.

I agree, but it's indisputable that the workforce participation rate is declining.

If you don't focus on the bump in number of people that appeared to drop out of the workforce, it looks like things actually were worse than expected, and the census corrected that: i.e.the number of people NOT in the workforce increased more than the people IN the workforce.

Or, did I misinterpret the numbers?