[SeekAndFind]

According to the Labor Dept., 11,742,000 people are currently unemployed

See here:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/UNEMPLOY

In addition, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that there are 89,967,000 working age Americans that are “not in the labor force”. That is a new all-time record, and that number increased by a whopping 663,000 during the month of March alone.

See here:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNS15000000

I wonder if we should add the 11 Million to the 89 Million, because if that is the correct methodology, we have nearly 100 Million who are not working in America.

That’s almost equal to the population of Spain and Italy combined.

[Wyatt's Torch]

No because many of the "not in the labor force" have no desire to work.

The 90 million not in the labor force is at an all time high because the population is at an all time high. The percentage not in the work force is nowhere near an all time low and has been trending down since the 1990's.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Here's an interesting chart from FRED. The Participation rate was driven up by women in the 60's and 70's and it is following that same trend downward. The rate for men has been declining steadily for decades:

[livius]

There was a very interesting article in the WSJ yesterday that said that the Obama administration, in an attempt to conceal unemployment stats, encouraged people to apply for SS Disability, often on the flimsiest of pretexts. The disability rolls have exploded, putting a huge burden on social security and of course keeping these people out of the labor force forever. This is expected to be a major drag on the economy in the future and require tens of BILLIONS of dollars in unnecessary disability spending.