Kill the Machine
Talking about how the unemployment rate only fell last month because of the number of people that dropped out of the labor force, Leno quipped that the President is “encouraging more Americans to give up looking for work so the numbers will come down a little bit”
via NewsBusters.org.
Ouch! Video at the link.
Worst news ever!!
The number of Americans whom the U.S. Department of Labor counted as “not in the civilian labor force” in August hit a record high of 88,921,000. …
In July, there were 155,013,000 in the U.S. civilian labor force. In August that dropped to 154,645,000—meaning that on net 368,000 people simply dropped out of the labor force last month and did not even look for a job.There were also 119,000 fewer Americans employed in August than there were in July. In July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 142,220,000 Americans working. But, in August, there were only 142,101,000 Americans working.
Despite the fact that fewer Americans were employed in August than July, the unemployment rate ticked down from 8.3 in July to 8.1. That is because so many people dropped out of the labor force and stopped looking for work. The unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force (meaning they had a job or were actively looking for one) who did not have a job.
The Bureau of Labor Statistic also reported that in August the labor force participation rate (the percentage of the people in the civilian non-institutionalized population who either had a job or were actively looking for one) dropped to a 30-year low of 63.5 percent, down from 63.7 percent in July. The last time the labor force participation rate was as low as 63.5 percent was in September 1981.
via cnsnews.
Think about that. In August the U.S. civilian labor force was 154,645,000 people. The unemployment rate among those people was 8.1%. So of those 154M who could/should be working 12,526,245 were not. These 12.5M are on unemployment. That means that 142,118,755 people are working; hooray for them!!
We are a country of 314,330,000 people. That means that only 42% of the people in this country are working.
Forty-Two Percent of people in this country are working.
Just think about that for a little bit.
This story is actually over a month old. It’s been sitting in the “drafts” folder. Still just as relevant as the day it was published.
In April the number of people not in the labor force rose by a whopping 522,000 from 87,897,000 to 88,419,000. This is the highest on record. The flip side, and the reason why the unemployment dropped to 8.1% is that the labor force participation rate just dipped to a new 30 year low of 64.3%.
via ZeroHedge.
Whenever you see anything about the “unemployment” rate always keep in mind that number only tells part of the story. The bottom line is that things are really really bad out there. Well that and the MSM doesn’t want to tell you about it. Which is why you have to go to site like ZeroHedge to find out what’s really going on.
Exactly a month ago I wrote about the bogus employment numbers claimed for the Chicago area. I claimed that there were no actual jobs “created” and that the only reason the employment rate went down was because people simply left the job market.
Didn’t have this at the time… but my theory has real support.
Changes in population and the participation rate can significantly impact the unemployment rate. If the Civilian noninstitutional population (over 16 years old) grows by about 2 million per year – and the participation rate stays flat – the economy will need to add about 94 thousand jobs per month to keep the unemployment rate steady at 8.2%.
However if the population grows faster (say 2.5 million per year), and/or the participation rate rises, it could take significantly more jobs per month to hold the unemployment rate steady. As an example, if the working age population grows 2.5 million per year and the participation rate rises to 65% (from 63.8%) over the next two years, the economy will need to add 227 thousand jobs per month to hold the unemployment rate steady.
via Calculated Risk.
Wanna see a chart of the Labor Force Participation Rate?
US Labor Force Participation Rate data by YCharts
Pretty wild? That fall off represents millions and millions of people who are simply no longer working, looking for work, claiming unemployment benefits, or are new grads who can’t find work.
It’s no wonder that more and more people are eating at McDonald’s.