It’s a new record: Americans not participating in the labor force nears 100 million |
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD - MARCH 23: U.S. President Barack Obama waves after he spoke during the SelectUSA Investment Summit March 23, 2015 in National Harbor, Maryland. The summit brought together investors from around the world to showcase the diversity of investment opportunities available in the U.S. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The number of eligible Americans not participating in the labor force grew to more than 95 million in November, according to statistics released by the Bureau of Labor.
The unfortunate number is a new record.
November saw an increase of 446,000 Americans, according to the statistics, making the overall number now 95,055,000. Those considered not to be in the working force are Americans who are age-eligible to work, but are neither working, nor actively seeking employment.
The labor force participation rate also declined last month from 62.8 percent to 62.7 percent. It is calculated as working eligible Americans who are either working, or actively seeking employment. In addition, the labor force rate under President Barack Obama is down 3.5 to nearly four percentage points when compared to the latter years of former President George W. Bush’s presidency.
The unemployment rate for all Americans declined from 4.9 percent in October to 4.6 percent in November. This measure does not account for those individuals who have dropped out of the labor force and simply measures the percent of those who did not have a job but actively sought one over the month.
While the unemployment rate declined this month, the number of Americans joining the labor force declined by 226,000 individuals.
The “real” unemployment rate, otherwise known as the U-6 measure, was 9.3 percent in November, which declined from 9.5 percent in the previous month.
Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen have said this measure accounts for discouraged workers and those working part time instead of full time for economic reasons and is more representative of the labor market.
There were 5,669,000 Americans working part-time in November who would rather have a full-time job but cited economic reasons for not having such employment.
According to the bureau, involuntary part-time workers are “persons who indicated that they would like to work full time but were working part time (1 to 34 hours) because of an economic reason, such as their hours were cut back or they were unable to find full-time jobs.”
“Job creation among small businesses was relatively weak in November, but there are clear signs that business owners are feeling better about the future,” said National Federation of Independent Businesses president and CEO Juanita Duggan. “They are trying to hire, but they are still having a difficult time finding qualified employees.”
Still, these raw numbers haven’t stopped Obama or his administration from touting a “strong economy” and “record job growth.” It has been found, however, that the administration likes to “cherry pick” their data.
