Labor Participation Rate Drops To Fresh 38 Year Low; Record 92.9 Million Not In Labor Force

Zero Hedge ^ | 01/09/2015 | Tyler Durden

[SeekAndFind]

Another month, another attempt by the BLS to mask the collapse in the US labor force with a goalseeked seasonally-adjusted surge in waiter, bartender and other low-paying jobs. Case in point: after a modest rebound by 0.1% in November, the labor participation rate just slid once more, dropping to 62.7%, or the lowest print since December 1977. This happened because the number of Americans not in the labor forced soared by 451,000 in December, far outpacing the 111,000 jobs added according to the Household Survey, and is the primary reason why the number of uenmployed Americans dropped by 383,000.

 

And another chart that will not be mentioned anywhere: the Civilian Employment to Population Ratio: at 59.2%, it is now unchanged for 4 months in a row.

[jsanders2001]

But, but, but Obama said this the bestest economy we’ve ever ever had and that he made the gas prices go down...

[Jim Robinson]

Totally unexpected. Ain’t Marxism grand.

[Jim Robinson]

Free Obama phones, free healthcare, free foodstamps for all.

[exit82]

And unemployment is only 5.7%.

According to the Bureau of Made-Up Statistics.

Next month it will be less than 5%.

Isn’t Barack dreamy? /s

[TexasFreeper2009]

quote “or the lowest print since December 1977”

hm.. interesting ... what happened in 1977... ?

oh yeah! that was the last time a liberal democrat was in charge!

[SeekAndFind]

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).

However, a record 92,898,000 Americans 16 and older DID NOT participate in the labor force in December 2014, as the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.7 percent.

That’s 456,000 more than the 92,442,000 Americans who did not participate in November 2014.

[Organic Panic]

Funemployment funded by the chumps dumb enough to keep working. Tax day is just around the corner.

[Kackikat]

“According to the Bureau of Made-Up Statistics.” ROFL...good one.

This bunch are financial terrorists and these part time jobs are to manipulate the numbers while they crush the economy, it’s intentional...unbelievable fools...living in la la land thinking communism is better than capitalism.

The people like Ayers and Obama, who were given privilege through capitalism think out of their rear ends, as long as the money is coming in to them.

[exit82]

To add to your analysis, we don’t know how many of these jobs were full time. Most were part-time, a result of Christmas seasonal hiring, as these are November numbers.

And let’s be frank—these numbers are statistically created—in other words, no one really knows if they are accurate or not.

In my view, the White Hut manipulates numbers unceasingly, and all I know is what I see out there—a GD depression.

[woodenickel]

And now free college. Is this great or what!!

[SeekAndFind]

Well we can get a glimpse of the NATURE of the job market from this -— the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.6 hours in December.

The manufacturing workweek edged down by 0.1 hour to 41.0 hours, and factory overtime edged up by 0.1 hour to 3.6 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged up by 0.1 hour to 33.9 hours.

In December, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 5 cents to $24.57, following an increase of 6 cents in November. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.7 percent. In December, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees decreased by 6 cents to $20.68.

That’s a bit of a puzzle, and not a good one. Either the competition for jobs is still far too sharp to push wages up, or businesses are having to compensate for higher costs by delaying compensation increases.

According to the Household data, the US economy added an average of 231,000 jobs in 2014, well above the level needed to keep up with population growth but not exactly sufficient to make significant inroads into the ranks of the chronically unemployed. Those idled workers may be suppressing wage growth and making it difficult for workers to turn the market to their advantage. We will need higher levels of job creation to overcome that handicap, and so far we still are waiting for the real expansion in jobs to begin.

[exit82]

Seek, the numbers are just that—numbers.

That the workweek went down by 0.1 hours is meaningless, and we don;t even know that the data that is based on is even accurate.

The numbers give trends, and the trends are interpreted differently.

Just watch CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg West and see how differently people interpret the SAME numbers.

Like I said, the reality I see is that this is the worst economy in my working lifetime of 49 years, and the whole financial house is shaky at best.

An unemployment rate of 5.7% is ludicrous in the face of the economic dislocation going on out there across the country.

[SeekAndFind]

In a nutshell, here’s how the BLS is counting the unemployed:

QUESTION: Are you employed?

Answer: No

QUESTION: Are you actively looking for a job?

Answer Yes.

Questioner counts the interviewee as among the unemployed.

Next....

QUESTION: Are you employed?

Answer: No

QUESTION: Are you actively looking for a job?

Answer No.

Questioner puts the interviewee in a different category and BLS DOES NOT include him in the official unemployment rate.

Regardless of what it is, if you don’t have a job, you don’t have a job, whether the BLS counts you or not.

[exit82]

Precisely.

And there is no way of knowing if the respondents answers are real or not.

This Administration cooks the books on everything.

I don’t believe anything they say.

I have six years of data to back up that conclusion.

[Blood of Tyrants]

A majority of that 92.9 million are living off relatives or the government.

[tcrlaf]

HOPEY...
Changey....

And all that bulls...

[Luigi Vasellini]

Bump great mocking of Obamas unemployment #’s

[SunkenCiv]

The Obama Recession

to go with

The Obama Tax Hikes

[AFPhys]

Great charts... I am wondering if you have access to a chart similar to the last one but with data going back at least into the 1970’s.