Unemployment is down, but labor force participation is way down
This week's news about job creation and a sinking unemployment rate is seriously undercut by another figure released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the labor force participation rate. Though only 5.6 percent of Americans who are looking for work can't find it, about 37 percent of adults have dropped out of the labor force entirely. These two figures combined mean that 42 percent of American adults are not working right now.
This is the lowest labor force participation rate since 1978, and it indicates that nearly 100 million adults have left the labor force. Thus, even though the unemployment rate is down among people looking for work, the civilian employment to population ratio is as grim as ever. --Bonnie Kristian
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(via Zero Hedge)
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