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.)
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.
This all pretty much says that there are lying statistics.
But, the official unemployment rate is just 1% above what is considered “full employment”!
Isn’t the Obameconomy great?
It’s just a matter of redefining terms, like “someone” did in Genesis 3!
What do these people do all day? Hang out? Watch daytime TV? Go out in the streets and do God knows what?
Wow, we have a critical mass of people who are not doing anything productive with their lives. This is not good for society.
Yeah, just a little of opening their eyes would tell them a lot more than the massaged numbers ever could.
Obama did promise to bring change, the country accepted and elected him, and must now pay the consequences.
Vote dhimmicrat and vote damnation.
Oh...1978...the Jimma Carter economy....
92 million is about 1/3rd the entire population or 33%..Yet the liberals and RINOs tell us unemployment is at 7 or 8% lol lol. Yessar massa whuteva you say massa, it only 8%, whuteva you say must be the truth cause you the massa!
And that thought should concern all of us. We’re raising generations on public assistance. What was intended to be temporary help, to get people back on their feet, instead morphed into an “entitlement”, or way of life.
This may sound odd to any liberals, but I would be very concerned if kids grow up from childhood, thinking you have to get EBT, that babies don’t come from a dad who is involved in their lives, and the whole ghetto culture lifestyle.
If we divide the population into 10 age groupings, 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, and 80-90, 90-100, we’ve got four of them not eligible to be working, and 6 of them that are. (I know this isn’t exact.)
If we place a 10th of the population in each group, then we have 120 million not eligible to be working....actually far fewer because they’re much smaller groups than a 10th of the population.
Let’s say there are 90 million out of 300 million that we shouldn’t expect to be working due to age and other things. That leaves 210 million that are eligible to be working.
This says about half of America eligible to be working isn’t working.
That says that the other half is carrying 2/3rds of the nation on their backs.
I think it’s split between welfare hacks and underground economy folks. I know when I visit the “self service” auto junkyard there are a lot of guys who are working off the books repairing cars for people and also buying, fixing up, and selling cars.
I do know most of the tv adverts during the Jerry Springer show are for disability lawyers. That’s probably not a coincidence.
These numbers say that we have 1/3 of America carrying 2/3rds of America. And the lower half of that one third doesn’t pay income tax, only social security, so that means we really have about 1/6 of America carrying everyone else on their backs.
That back will break.
What will be the straw that break’s the beast of burden’s back?
This administration literally makes things up as they go along. They can, because the low information voter lives and dies with soundbites. That being said, people are hurting out there, and are starting to pay attention. When someone is dropped from their health insurance for reasons they cannot really understand, and/or lose their job and cannot find another, the President getting on the television to tell everyone how great everything is and how successful his signature healthcare law is, people start asking questions and really wonder how things got this bad. We need to remind that it is the President, the Democrat party and their policies that have dragged us down and that there is an alternative. Unfortunately, the GOP-e could not care less, they just want their chance to tax and spend. It is a stupid game, of which I tire.
I think your estimated numbers are reasonable.
The party can continue as long as the fedgov can get away with having a yearly budget with 40% fake money.
But eventually the markets are going to puke on it.
That’s when it gets ugly.
But, but John Boehner and Hussein 0bama say we need to throw open the borders and grant amnesty because we need more workers! How can that be?
/EXTREME Sarc
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