Replies

ALSO SEE HERE:

Labor Force Participation Matches 36-Year Low; 92,898,000 Neither Had Job Nor Sought One

Here’s the right way to look at it (if we are realistic ):

In December, the civilian noninstitutional population was 249,027,000 according to BLS. Of that 249,027,000, 156,129,000—or 62.7 percent—participated in the labor force, meaning they either had or job or had actively sought one in the last four weeks.

Of the 156,129,000 who did participate in the labor force, 147,442,000 had a job and 8,688,000 did not have a job but actively sought one. Those 8,688,000 are the unemployed. They equaled 5.6 percent of the labor force—or an unemployment rate of 5.6 percent (which was down from the 5.8 percent unemployment rate in November).

more and more people are dropping out of the labor force (shown in the chart below via the decline in the participation rate).

I have no reason to doubt these articles.. many say what we all know. But I tire of the articles not giving a source -- other than each others articles, so I located sources and combined the several tables into one large table with links to federal government sources. I did not bother to include the unemployment rate we all know how phony that is. But here are a bunch more data to judge Obama economy including decades of the participation rate. It was low, grew steadily from the Reagan years and has been sinking recently.

This compares the Obama Adminstration economics to past administrations by combining the various tables of actual federal government data into one large table -- you do not have to visit other sites; but links are included.

Col 3. Civilian labor force [thousands] (hover Col 4. to view);
Col 4. Civilian labor force participation rate
Col 6. Employment-population ratio
Col 7. Employed full time, persons who usually work 35 hours or more;
Col 8. Employed part time, persons who usually work less than 35 hours (hover Col 7. to view);
Col 10. Unemployed looking for full-time work;
Col 13. Not in labor force;
pop. Population;
labor. Labor force domestic born;
Labor force foreign born (hover labor.);
income. Median income;
Recession. Recessions;
GDP. GDP in billions of chained 2009 dollars (Seasonally adjusted annual rates);
PCE. GDP Personal consumption expenditures percentage of GDP, Seasonally adjusted at annual rates;
Percent Change in Real Gross Domestic Product (hover PCE. to view)
U-6. U-6 unemployment rate;
U-2 Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs (hover U-6., starts in 1967)

Labor Force Statistics from the Census Bureau Current Population Survey (CPS) and other federal sources.

NOTE: I display the December / fourth quarter monthly/quarterly annualized data to represent the year. In some cases the annualized data for 2014 are for November / third quarter.

See below for numbered-column table information. The remaining columns are explained individually.

The numbered column headings are for:

Population
Civilian noninstitutional population [thousands]
Civilian labor force [thousands]. Hover column 4. to access
Civilian labor force participation rate
Employed [thousands]
Employment-population ratio
Employed full time (persons who usually work 35 hours or more) [thousands]
Employed part time (persons who usually work less than 35 hours. Hover Col 7. to access
Unemployed [thousands]
Unemployed looking for full-time work [thousands]
Unemployment rate
Unemployment rate of the full-time labor force
Not in labor force [thousands]

Some columns are combined / omitted to fit desired columns on a PC screen. Use hover to view combined columns.

Year	4.	6.	7.	10.	13.
1948	58.8	56.6	N	N	N
1949	59.4	55.3	N	N	N
1950	59.2	56.8	N	N	N
1951	59.4	57.4	N	N	N
1952	59.0	57.3	N	N	N
1953	58.5	56.3	N	N	N
1954	58.5	55.4	N	N	N
1955	60.0	57.5	N	N	N
1956	59.8	57.3	N	N	N
1957	59.5	56.6	N	N	N
1958	59.3	55.6	N	N	N
1959	59.3	56.0	N	N	N
1960	59.6	55.9	N	N	N
1961	59.0	55.3	N	N	N
1962	58.6	55.3	N	N	N
1963	58.7	55.4	N	3460	N
1964	58.5	55.6	N	3012	N
1965	58.9	56.5	N	2474	N
1966	59.5	57.3	N	2261	N
1967	59.9	57.5	N	2384	N
1968	59.6	57.6	65503	2007	N
1969	60.3	58.1	66929	2200	N
1970	60.4	56.9	66654	3866	N
1971	60.3	56.7	67622	4055	N
1972	60.4	57.2	70115	3575	N
1973	61.1	58.2	72560	3329	N
1974	61.3	57.2	72825	4851	N
1975	61.1	56.0	72269	6436	60028
1976	61.8	57.0	74532	6104	60120
1977	62.6	58.5	77922	5260	59846
1978	63.5	59.7	81416	4680	59541
1979	63.8	60.0	83345	4941	60131
1980	63.7	59.0	82648	6612	61252
1981	63.8	58.5	82799	7491	61933
1982	64.1	57.3	80606	10111	62087
1983	64.1	58.6	83997	8017	62790
1984	64.5	59.8	87458	6891	62876
1985	64.9	60.4	89259	6697	62730
1986	65.4	60.9	91297	6586	62778
1987	65.7	61.9	93914	5635	62874
1988	66.1	62.6	95927	5236	62765
1989	66.5	63.0	98015	5298	62570
1990	66.4	62.3	98285	6311	63797
1991	66.1	61.4	96973	7392	64982
1992	66.3	61.4	97949	7799	65276
1993	66.3	61.9	99952	6999	65879
1994	66.7	63.0	101003	5980	65739
1995	66.5	62.8	102217	5928	66738
1996	67.0	63.5	104753	5774	66444
1997	67.1	64.0	107293	5127	67019
1998	67.2	64.2	109129	4801	67666
1999	67.1	64.4	111415	4547	68669
2000	66.9	64.3	114163	4510	70616
2001	66.7	63.0	112610	6619	71901
2002	66.4	62.5	112942	7203	73403
2003	66.1	62.2	113947	7215	75461
2004	66.0	62.4	115204	6560	76413
2005	66.0	62.8	117753	5991	77164
2006	66.3	63.3	120658	5479	77503
2007	66.0	62.8	121621	6009	79291
2008	65.9	61.4	118281	9009	80102
2009	64.9	58.4	110906	13444	83148
2010	64.4	58.3	111653	12848	84913
2011	64.0	58.5	113268	11487	86452
2012	63.7	58.7	115616	10288	88745
2013	62.8	58.5	116845	9110	91616
2014	62.7	59.2	118797	7873	92898
Year	4.	6.	7.	10.	13.

pop.
146630
149190
152270
154880
157550
160180
163030
165930
168900
171980
174880
177830
180670
183690
186540
189240
191890
194300
196560
198710
200710
202680
205050
207660
209900
211910
213850
215970
218040
220240
222580
225060
227220
229470
231660
233790
235820
237920
240130
242290
244500
246820
249620
252980
256510
259920
263130
266280
269390
272650
275850
279040
282160
284970
287630
290110
292810
295520
298380
301230
304090
306770
309330
311590
313910
316160
319470
pop.

labor¹	income³
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	N
N	43,558
N	45,435
N	47,124
N	46,759
N	46,304
N	48,287
N	49,262
N	47,702
N	46,453
N	47,224
N	47,523
N	49,362
N	49,225
N	47,668
N	46,877
N	46,751
N	46,425
N	47,866
N	48,761
N	50,488
N	51,121
N	51,514
N	52,432
N	51,735
N	50,249
N	49,836
N	49,594
N	50,148
N	51,719
N	52,471
N	53,551
N	55,497
N	56,895
N	56,800
N	55,562
N	54,913
N	54,865
N	54,674
N	55,278
N	55,689
123524	56,436
121211	54,423
116663	54,059
117006	52,646
118033	51,842
119844	51,759
120636	51,939
122558	N
labor	median
force	income
domestic
born
[1000s]

Recession
Nov 1948 to
Oct 1949
-
-
-
Jul 1953 to
May 1954
-
-
Aug 1957 to
Apr 1958
-
Apr 1960 to
Feb 1961
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Dec 1969 to
Nov 1970
-
-
Nov 1973
to
Mar 1975
-
-
-
-
Jan to Jul '80
Jul 1981 to
Nov 1982
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Jul 1990 to
Mar 1991
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Mar - Nov '01
-
-
-
-
-
Dec 2007
to
Jun 2009
-
-
-
-
-

GDP
2,020.0
2,008.9
2,184.0
2,360.0
2,456.1
2,571.4
2,556.9
2,739.0
2,797.4
2,856.3
2,835.3
3,031.0
3,108.7
3,188.1
3,383.1
3,530.4
3,734.0
3,976.7
4,238.9
4,355.2
4,569.0
4,712.5
4,722.0
4,877.6
5,134.3
5,424.1
5,396.0
5,385.4
5,675.4
5,937.0
6,267.2
6,466.2
6,450.4
6,617.7
6,491.3
6,792.0
7,285.0
7,593.8
7,860.5
8,132.6
8,474.5
8,786.4
8,955.0
8,948.4
9,266.6
9,521.0
9,905.4
10,174.8
10,561.0
11,034.9
11,525.9
12,065.9
12,559.7
12,682.2
12,908.8
13,271.1
13,773.5
14,234.2
14,613.8
14,873.7
14,830.4
14,418.7
14,783.8
15,020.6
15,369.2
15,710.3
16,205.6
Billions 2009 dollars

PCE
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
1.88
-0.59
3.98
5.63
-0.69
-3.49
2.61
3.23
3.62
1.93
0.61
3.32
-1.8
4.51
4.06
3.29
0.62
1.62
0.57
2.93
1.13
-1.96
-0.07
3.08
2.33
2.83
1.83
2.08
3.07
3.88
3.93
2.35
4.06
1.44
2.12
2.78
1
2.75
0.34
-3.16
-0.01
2.79
0.94
1.32
2.51
2.21
PCE

U-6
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
10.0
10.0
9.5
8.4
7.6
7.1
6.9
9.6
9.8
9.8
9.2
8.6
7.9
8.8
13.6
17.1
16.6
15.2
14.4
13.1
11.4
U-6

¹labor: Hover labor for foreign born numbers.

Source: to find the tables go here Data Retrieval: Labor Force Statistics (CPS)

HOUSEHOLD DATA Table A-7. Employment status of the civilian population by nativity and sex, not seasonally adjusted [Numbers in thousands]
Employment status and nativity. Then

select Employed under Foreign born, 16 years and over and
Employed under Native born, 16 years and over

Scroll down to "Retrieve Data"

The data that I include above are from the month of December except for 2014 where November is the last month with data available.

³income: For the Census Bureau income data go here. Choose "Consumer Income Reports (P60)" then choose "P60-249 Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013" (pdf file).

Table Information
Column headings 1 to 13
I've combined several tables into one. Most of the tables were obtained here: go to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Labor Force Statisics from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Make your selections. I chose quarterly data. I took the fourth quarter data from each table and combined them into the main part of the table above. For the year 2014 I took the third quarter data.

pop. Population data
Go here U.S. population and US Census clock, Dec 22, 2014 319.47 million

Recession
CENSUS BUREAU, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS SOURCES
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. Cambridge MA 02138 US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions Link from BLS SPOTLIGHT ON STATISTICS THE RECESSION OF 2007 – 2009
The NBER does not define a recession in terms of two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. Rather, a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.

GDP in billions of chained 2009 dollars (Seasonally adjusted annual rates)
GDP 1929 - 2014

PCE Personal consumption expenditures
The GDP Personal consumption expenditures percentage hover GDP Personal consumption expenditures percentage for Percent Change in Real Gross Domestic Product US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) If you are not at Gross Domestic Product (GDP) search for it. It should be on page http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm. Then click on "Interactive Tables: GDP and the National Income and Product Account (NIPA) Historical Tables"; that page should be National Data GDP & Personal Income; click on "Begin using the data"; that page should be National Data National Income and Product Accounts Tables; click on Advanced Download Section; that page should be Download NIPA Tables and it is where you can download series of tables. I did not know which tables to look for so I chose to download them all in csv format. I clicked on Section 1 (2852.7k) I used Table 1.1.2. Contributions to Percent Change in Real Gross Domestic Product ; Seasonally adjusted at annual rates Quarterly data from 1969 To 2014 Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data that I include above are from the month of December except for 2014 where November is the last month with data available.

PCE Personal consumption expenditures

The GDP Personal consumption expenditures percentage
hover GDP Personal consumption expenditures percentage for Percent Change in Real Gross Domestic Product
US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
If you are not at Gross Domestic Product (GDP) search for it.
It should be on page http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm.

Then click on

"Interactive Tables: GDP and the National Income and Product Account (NIPA) Historical Tables"; that page should be
National Data GDP & Personal Income;
click on "Begin using the data"; that page should be
National Data National Income and Product Accounts Tables; click on Advanced Download Section; that page should be
Download NIPA Tables and it is where you can download series of tables.

I did not know which tables to look for so I chose to download them all in csv format. I clicked on Section 1 (2852.7k)

I used Table 1.1.2. Contributions to Percent Change in Real Gross Domestic Product
; Seasonally adjusted at annual rates
Quarterly data from 1969 To 2014
Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data that I include above are from the month of December except for 2014 where November is the last month with data available.

U-6
Hover column for U-2 data.
U-1 to U-6 unemployment rates. We know how the "official unemployment rate" is manipulated so I won't include it here. These are annualized monthly data for December. For 2014 I used November.
Series Id: LNS13327709 Seasonally Adjusted Series title: (seas) Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of all civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers Labor force status: Aggregated totals unemployed Type of data: Percent or rate Age: 16 years and over Percent/rates: Unemployed and mrg attached and pt for econ reas as percent of labor force plus marg attached.

U-2
U-1 to U-6 unemployment rates. These are annualized monthly data for December. For 2014 I used November.
Series Id: LNS14023621 Seasonally Adjusted Series title: (Seas) Unemployment Rate - Job Losers Type of data: Percent or rate Age: 16 years and over Reasons looking for work: Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs U-2

Footnotes

N Not available.

Z Represents or rounds to zero.