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Record 94 Million Americans Not In The Labor Force; Participation Rate Lowest Since 1977
While the kneejerk headling scanning algos are focusing on the seasonally-adjusted headline monthly NFP increase which came in a worse than expected 173K, the presidential candidates - especially the GOP - are far more focused on another data point: the labor force participation rate, and the number of Americans not in the labor force. Here, they will have some serious ammo, because according to the BLS, the main reason why the unemployment rate tumbled to the lowest since April 2008 is because another 261,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force, as a result pushing the total number of US potential workers who are not in the labor force, to a record 94 million, an increase of 1.8 million in the past year, and a whopping 14.9 million since the start of the second great depression in December 2007 while only 4 million new jobs have been created.
And since there are still those confused why wages so stubbornly refuse to rise, here is our favorite labor-related chart, showing the annual increase in average hourly wages superimposed next to the US civilian employment-to-population ratio, which remains solidly below 60%, and has barely risen since the great financial crisis.
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Bullish
94 Million, just think about that for a minute.
Job Layoff / Closing List http://www.dailyjobcuts.com
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94 million lives.....they don't matter.
Hillary/Jeb 2016TM
Oh COME ON MARKET!!! Why ya being such a pussy? Rally on this shit don't cave like a spineless worm!
Dude.....even slaves use to get vacation.
When destruction is the goal, the participation rate should be at it's lowest, everything is going to be fine, until it's not.
Hillarious,.... it's delirious.
Delirious (Boneless)
One sip from the fifth
I ain't seen nothing, girl, plead the fifth
plead the fifth
Remember that old episode of the Crocodile Hunter?
Be careful......it's an email server.......danger danger!
Shouldn't Hillarity be tried for treason at this point?
The people who could work but aren't looking (CNP - CLF), as a percent of total US population:
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=1Lim
"Shouldn't Hillarity be tried for treason at this point?"
In this Bizarro world we live into day, she is likely to get awarded the Nobel Peace prize and a congressional medal.
US might pull an "Ukraine" and blame Putin. Some evil, anti-american, external forces behind the decline of this once so insanely great country now reduced to a oligarch-infested shitheap.
"US might pull an "Ukraine" and blame Putin. Some evil, anti-american"
Did you mean blame "Capitalism"? aka Like Benie, Hilary, Jeb, etc does?
'How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.'
That's 94 million pissed-off Americans who won't be losing a dime of pay when they march to Washington and burn that psychopathic circus to the ground.
Not that I'm advocating violent overthrow of the U.S. government. That's technically impossible because there is no more constitutionally-defined U.S. and whatever exists in Washington today is hardly 'a government'.
94 million people have nothing to lose from hitting the RESET button. This is bound to get interesting.
"94 million people have nothing to lose from hitting the RESET button. This is bound to get interesting."
I think we are seeing this play out bit by bit. Some people are so angry that they will walk right up and shoot a cop knowing they may die or get caught and spend a long time in prison. It gets real scary when people are no longer afraid of the consequences. Let's just hope that cops don't get fed up and go on strike in major population centers.
Consequence is a dirty word in politics, cops have egos which will not prevent them from doing a job, so shoot away.
How many of those 94 million are living the 'gimmiedat free shit' lifestyle? 14ish million on disability, 50-54MM on the 'Ejaculate Better Today' program, 1.2 million in Federal housing, 50? million getting free health insurance. I'd suggest at least half of the 94 million are content, cuz it's summertime, and the living is easy, courtesy of the taxpayer-sponsored free shit programs for the lazy and stupid.
They are scared if you tell them they will be blocked from obtaining the next iphone model.
The plan is to move the capital to St. Louis, after the default. D.C. is going under, water that is.
Have you ever heard of the New Madrid fault?
Actually, Just outside of Springfield!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/us/19ozarks.html?_r=3&partner=rss&emc=...
Nothing to lose??? HA HA HA !!! They will lose their government benefits (i.e. their means of survival). These people will beg for MORE GOVERNMENT. MORE taxes. MORE laws/regulations. MORE handouts. They have no interest in economic or social liberty.
94 million have everything to lose from hitting the reset button. Conversely, People who earn a living and produce goods/services have everything to gain.
"94 million people have nothing to lose from hitting the RESET button."
I don't think so. I am pretty sure everyone of them is collecting a gov't check. As long as the gov't checks keep coming, they will remain calm. Its the working stiffs that are more likely to revolt as they see taxes (federal, State, Local) soar, falling wages, and higher Health-insurance costs. That said, many working stiffs will simply just give up and start collecting gov't checks. Probably 50% of those added to the 94M in the past five years have simply given up, Riots will come when the gov't checks don't buy anything and the grocery stores go bare.
It would also be nice to see a curve for the number of people on government support via welfare, Social Security, unemployment, or disability.
261K in one month...Thats 361 Americans every hour of the day throwing in the towel, giving up.
Crack lives matter
.
but 1977 was a great year for music and started the next 5 years which was probably the greatest period for all kinds of music genre.!
http://thegreatestyearinmusic.xpn.org/1977-the-world-transitions-to-punk...
All days of past were great for music, just depends on your taste.
Yesterday sucked.
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now i know they're here to stay, oh i believe, in yesterday.
off thread topic, but if you like online live music, there is a great site for music of all genre
http://xpn.org/
run by Univ of Pennsylvania in Philly. from 50's to today. Folk, rock, punk, everything (except no Lady GaGa stuff).
NoVa
Thanks. Needed me some blues today.
Disagree, 69-73 the most prolific in rock history. In my humble opinion
Yea - I don't disagree - that was a great period. Stones, Lennon, Pink Floyd many others.
the http://xpn.org/ site is running a survey - best year in music ever - kinda controversial as it depends mostly upon when one comes of age.
NoVa
I agree 100% too and I wasn't even born then.
Funny you say that - For many years I thought the last great records ever were Physical Graffiti and Wish You Were Here in 1975, and that music really started to suck in 1977 because the rhythm and melodies had largely disappeared. However, as I started to undertsand the real ways of the world, I started to appreciate that the kids making punk music were just reacting to the world around them as were the old Delta bluesmen, and the kids in the 60's who protested Viet Nam, racism, etc. . . . but it all started in 1977 with the Sex Pistols doing "God Save the Queen" . . so while I certainly don't agree that 1977-82 was the "greatest" period for music, your argument is appreciated.
Yes indeed, producers versus consumers...
..that which cannot be sustained, won't be, period.
The only numbers that matter.
Portugal employed/total population 4.553/10.46=0.435
Italy employed/total population 22.479/59.83=0.375
Ireland employed/total population 1.964/4.595=0.435
Greece employed/total population 3.63/11.03=0.329
Spain employed/total population 17.866/46.77=0.381
Russia employed/total population 73.1/143.5=0.509
Germany employed/total population42.837/80.62=0.531
China employed/total population (billions all other millions) 0.773/1.357=0.569
US employed/total population 149/318.9=0.467
FYI: 2012 US census bureau reports 120M in labor force (I presume statistics collected from US treasury Dept). I took the figures from this report:
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/econ...
2012 US BLS reports 143M in labor force. an error of about 19% from US Census report. So if we presume the error rate is consist in 2015, the US Labor participation is probably 125M, not 149M. I suspect BLS double counts people (ie same person working two or more part-time jobs), where the Census data is based up IRS Tax filings and less likely to contain dupes.
125M/318M = 0.393
I would imagine the statistics for the other countries is probably in error, since they also use gov't bureaucrats to create these reports.
I sourced from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/
You have 150% of the UK population "not working, but not registered as unemployed"? Have I got this right?
Edit: I should ask if this figure includes retired people too.
They can build the wall...
That participation rate is misleading in that in 1977, women were not on equal footing with men when it came to jobs. Many companies, even big companies like Met Life, had had a practice of terminating female employees who got married. Still in 1977, it was possible for a family to live pretty comfortably on a middle class salary, back when almost all houses cost low five figure sums and gasoline was under 40 cents a gallon. Of course, stagflation came along and then the insane Volcker credit tightening monetary policy which ended 7 1/4% mortgages. And there were the hikes in local and state taxes of all sorts when Reagan came in, to compensate for lost federal revenue sharing funds as "trickle down" economics and massive military spending shifted the federal budget to subsidizing the rich.
So...in 1977 the BLS didn't count women? Really???
And Reagan caused the state and local tax hikes?? REALLY??????
Do the democracy dance for us.
Show me what democracy looks like ,,,,, this is what....
So how did that "trickle up" great society work out for you liberals?
You do realize Volcker had to raise rates because of INSANE Carter economic policies, don't you?
Or would you prefer a loaf of bread to cost a hundred bucks?
I hope you did not breed.
Volcker had to raise rates because of the spending on the Vietnam war.
"You do realize Volcker had to raise rates because of INSANE Carter economic policies, don't you?"
It was Carter that installed Volker. The insane economic policies came before Carter.
like funding the Vietnam War and Johnson with the War on Poverty and Nixon breaking the last ties to a gold standard.
Just more steps on the road to the greatest welfare/warfare state/empire ever conceived. The complete and utter antithesis of the principals this country was founded upon. The founding fathers are spinning in their graves, cursing us for what we've become
Volcker raised rates in 1979-81 idiots. The Vietnam war was long, long gone, got that? I realize debt was there, but war costs were not the main reason.
Carter's unionistas and socialist policies pushed an already unstable economy over the cliff. Remember back then pay raises were almost automatic and tied to inflation. Unions were very, VERY powerful.
And Carter regretted putting Volcker in his job.
Remember the "misery index" becoming a household word during those days?
I expected more intellect from the readers of this site.
Carter was just another brick in the wall. There were already many more bricks in place before him and many more bricks came after. But it appears the wall is almost complete and ready to come crashing down under it's own weight and rot and corruption. Time will tell how many more bricks it can take. Not many I'm guessing
"Volcker raised rates in 1979-81 idiots. The Vietnam war was long, long gone, got that? I realize debt was there, but war costs were not the main reason. "
Inflation began when Nixon dumped the gold standard, coupled with the oil shocks, and the Fed's easy money policy enable by Fed Chairman Burns. By the time Carter was in office Inflation became ridiculous. Carter policies definitely tip inflation up, as he, and DNC controlled Congress raised taxes to cover rising costs (cause by inflation). Lets also not forget to throw in LBJ's "great society" forcing wealth fare costs to soar and Minority hiring quotas that through workers under the bus. The 1970's sucked!
Revisionist claptrap. I was there. Mortgages were 14 percent and inflation was running 7 percent and it was called the misery index. This was a direct result of the policies coming out of vietnam and carter made it worse. Volker throttled inflation
In 1977 the bulk of women were still mothers and not ersatz-men abdicating the raising of children for government and television to take over. But that extra income was more important than their childrens' well-being, even though they spent it all and then some placating and spoiling the unparented spawn they left in their wake.
Abother great outcome from the progressive liberal democrap bullsh*t policies of the illegal indonesian kenyan alien muslim fudgepacker.
I'll be the first to admit, I never though ole coony Obama could do it! I've never seen a more healthy, vibrant, organic economy in my 37 years. Everyone said Obama didn't have the chops or experience to be THE jobs president. Well, ole coony showed them! Only 94 million out of the work force! I'll eat my hat. Obama time for your victory lap.
We are an Obamanation!
The lying illegal alien turd needs its skin sandpapered off and buried in salt.
Let's see some stats on how many jobs in the past 6 years have been taken by illegal aliens.
That's easy. On balance, all of them.
How about a graph with the reported rapes per year to dindu nuffin population ratio in major cities like Detriot, Chicago, and Baltimore for the past 80 years? Or Oslo, Stockholm...
All those falling wages in the 7th (or is it 8th) summer of recovery (too bad about all that weather):
https://nz.finance.yahoo.com/news/most-workers-actually-making-less-1638...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/upshot/this-was-to-be-the-year-of-bigg...
http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/workplace/article33790386.html
http://www.nelp.org/publication/occupational-wage-declines-since-the-gre...
buy, buy, buy!
Is it only September in Canada or something ? Why Sept rate hikes? Sept 2016 ?
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34116189
Wait 'till we get another 5 million illegals across the border or from MENA.
That is the worst news I've heard this millennium. Now that the US is bordering MENA I'm outta here!
Hey, don't be pointing out any facts that go against the party....... terrorist!
So, does that figure translate into lets's say, a 23% unemployment rate or the big Criminal Fraud UNITED STATES, CORP. INC. lie of 5%?
My city has a 5.5% unemployment rate. This week's headlines are family living in church gets evicted and store owner would have given money or food to burglar who died in air vent if he knew he was that desperate.
Ugh. This makes me really to go to fucking work right now. One of the declining number of tax feeders.
One does not "derive income" by providing services and charging for them. That is called an equal exchange and to tax your labor which is unconstitutional.
Wow! You're going under Finland's participation rate and that's something!
Funemployment - this 'free time' will give 'the people' the freedom to refine themselves with art classes, hobbies and self improvement.
Nancy Pelosi - 2012
Priceless....
HOORAY!
WE ARE SAVED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlVmdGiAH2A
Business no longer can compete with big brother benefits. Everyone needs to quit and enjoy life to its fullest. Zero unemployment print is within sight.
Cloward & Piven hard at work. Free Shit Army, here we come. CHARGE!!!
Hey, we're doing our part at my company. Just laid off another due to lack of sharing the company's vision. WTF? Doesn't matter that the person worked thankless hours and such, withstanding much customer abuse.
Forward, comrades!
TRUMP !!
How the mighty Rand has fallen.....you lie down with McConnell once.....and you're dead.
My company is outsourcing department by department for the last 3 years. Knuckleheads I work with are delusional and stick to the "they can't outsource what we do" mantra. meanwhile I am stacking.
so true I see it also and have warned against it to no avail. Also the bigwigs come back from conferences telling how the labor market is so tight and that is why we have to outsource.
Whew! Glad that's over. It's ok the buy stocks now - the other algos are doing it, so you're safe.
It's Friday peoples - buy the fucking dip and sell all yer gold! Janet has your back!
Stocks don't settle red on a Holiday weekend in the USSA.
Boomers hanging up their hats. Long rocking chairs.
And everyone of them collecting some sort of Government handout....now go to work lemmings.
what % of the employed that are measured in the statistic are 1099 part time workers?
the numbers are never dissected by the WSJ or NYT - part time doesnt create stable consumption for purchase of housing or many other things
They're probably retired baby boomers with no money and no income
Besides the illegals 70% of refugees handled by the UN end up in the United States. Party on Wayne!
The shadow of crisis has passed.
Barack Hussein Obama Jan. 20, 2015
The American Public is so brainwashed and stupid now they cannot see a 0.2 drop in the unemployment rate is complete non-sense. John Williams of SGS guessed as much yesterday: A "Fix". Rates are going up. Should be fun to see the Algos nic-fit.
It is almost pointless trying to wake anyone up. There is a 24 YO bar tender at our local pub and she is going to Turkey! to celebrate new years with a friend. I tried to tell her what is going on there (stock market collapse, lira tanking, possible imposition of martial law, political turmoil, and Syrian migrant issues). I even pulled up some Zero Hedge headlines to show her I had recently read about all these events. Her reply was “is that Fox News”? “They always slant everything republican”. She just smiled and walked away. None of the events I described had anything to do with R or D . I would consider this girl well above average intellect for her age. But this is just further proof how well and truly F’d we all are with all the sheeple that don’t, won’t, or can’t spend more than 30 seconds researching or looking into things that mater…
screw it, let her die....
perhaps she's seeking to be a Darwin award winner
See my post below. You've just described almost half of the general population, and a good 70% of all Millennials.
-Argenta
Just use some more supply side economics.... make more stuff, produce more, then out of thin air people with money will appear to buy it all.
No, just park it all in the desert. Less paper work.
Hope and Chains...
Obama is coming into his eighth and final year of his presidency. I've learned more about the average American voter in these years than I care to. I had a mild epiphany the other day, and that was it doesn't matter who gets elected in 2016. I'm optimistic by nature, but this disaster has left port and is already three-quarters away to it's final destination.
In short, the average voter is a self-serving, narcissistic idiot that has the attention span of a goldfish. That won't change until events force it to. Hunger/poverty is a huge motivator to pay more attention.
-Argenta
All American elections have been rigged with predetermined winners and losers for many, many decades. For example, mrs. Evil Hillary Clinton will be elected president in 2016 whether any Americans actually go to the polls or not. There are hundreds of millions of dead Americans just waiting for their votes to be counted.
Further, that number is increasing, not decreasing. All those chearleaders championing this Recovery obama/keynsian ideologues with blinders on. We're entering our 9th year of the depression.
People who have nothing to lose eventually lose it.
Wow, when they raise rates things are really going to slow down, someone tell Janet I'm holding my breath.....it should happen any minute now.
Saved!!!! But, but, what about the saved jobs as in saved or created used by the liar in chielf at every campaign stop? Why work when you can collect?
"Mom! Who ate all the ice cream?"
Meh, somewhere around the 25-35% would be accurite for anyone actually needing the truth for some reason.
Soon we will add 5 people employed and a rate of 3% - perfect economy
Print that fiat currecy to fill the EBT cards and keep sending the welfare cheques by the hundreds to the same Cali address - saves postage.
I think what most people who read this article are missing is that these numbers can mean whatever TPTB want them to mean. This is why there are so many "revised" numbers. They can either revise numbers so that they don't look as bad or spin it in such a way that the masses think "everything is awesome!".
94 Million not in the labor force? But Unemployment is 5.1%!
"How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four."
"Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane."
I'm convinced the fed. wants to crash the casino so they can print more. They'll be able to weaken the $usd, buy back the debt China is dumping, and further destroy what's left of middle Amerika, while propping up the ponzi for their .01% clown brigade.
TPTB may well wish to crash the bus, in a crisis they can make all sorts of 'emergency' laws that further hand power to the 0.01%
If you make the entire population poor, watched, without liberties and dependent.....well you own them.
You've been reading '1984' again, haven't you?
Soylent Green, 94,000,000 Americans being productive, by being production, now thats American as Appl...Soylent Pie.
It's a disaster. Total employed at an all time high. Full timers at an all time high.
And this at a time when the rest of the world is in recession and facing huge commodity deflation.
Not sure what you all want. You were probably disappointed when you didn't get a pony for Chistmas.
I guess Hawking was right. Black holes do indeed lead to parallel universes, and the one you just popped in from has completely different labor statistics that ours. Was the federal budget balanced in the one you came from, as well?
-Argenta
Well, the debt's been flat since March, and down since June. So . .
But carry on.
($10 says you've never even looked at the data on the BLS site)
I would like to point out that 1) if you really believe that debt shot up trillions in but a few years then suddenly stopped all at once and frozen just below the debt limit, then 2) please carry right on believing what you see on the BLS site. I've got to think you're being sarcastic here...
-Argenta
Um, the jobs numbers are at the BLS site. The debt numbers are posted daily at treasurydirect.
True, the "extreme measures" of the treasury have kept it there for 7 months. But let's do the math. This year's deficit will be about $350 billion, wihich is down about $300 billion from last year. That's because of more people working and paying taxes. Add another 2 million workers working longer hours for higher pay, and next year . . .
Thank you sequestration.
Go government, rah rah rah.
About 95% of the government's debt obligations do not appear in what is covered by the debt ceiling. They have been able to get away with it for years because much of it is future liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Pensions. Total Federal government debt per GAAP is well over $200 Trillion!
Total employment at an all time high? Maybe if you count bodies in cemeteries working to fill holes.
You can only do that in Chicago.
The Labor Force Participation Rate is one of the KEY indicators of the health of the US economy now. We are at 1977 levels, and we are entering a new Recession that is worse than 2008. What does that tell you about where we will be in two years?
It is becoming impossible for the USA to maintain many assitance programs from the Government. And it is becoming impossible for taxpayers to continue paying high taxes to support unrestrained Government spending. The tax base just won't support these kinds of policies.
In plain words ... the remaining Americans who are STILL working cannot PAY for all these taxes and Government handouts!!
'pushes the total number of US potential workers who are not in the labor force, to a record 94 million'
And in your next article: 'against the vast(sic) 140 or so million US workers.'
So more than half the employable workforce is unemployed.
What are the official statistics again???
5-6-7%?
This from people who run the economy!
m.
Do those employed numbers count bureaucrats and police/army personel?
What's left when you omit those non-producers
m.
Only about 5-10% of the people actually produce anything. The rest are in workfare jobs like "business".
This is a symptom of a post scarcity culture. We should be celebrating the end of toil, but instead we mourn the lack of slavery (labor). Fuck the slaveowners.
How else can they survive unless they are all breaking their backs from before sunrise until after sundown farming enough land to support them and their families? I've lived in farm country in Southeast Missouri. Every farmer that I knew was either elderly retired with Social Security or they worked non-farming jobs to make ends meet.
If there aren't enough "jobs" to maintain the illusion that people need to labor, what does that say about a system who's health depends on people working and having their labor taken from them?
Niggernomics.
I hope they come out with some decent acid and good music when the labor rate goes down to 1969
Thank the FED for printing money to enable the government to support all of the working age people who are not in the workforce! [You don't really think that they are all independently wealthy and living the life of Reilly, now do you?]
This is one of the huge malinvestments that the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM enables the government to conduct. Of course, it's all on the tab of future generations to pay the ultimate bill for this governmental "largesse".
Why? Why do future generations have to be enslaved by bankers? Can't you see the scam?
http://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/LNS11324230;jsessionid=F5...
Labor force participation for people over 55 has jumped from 36% to 40% since 2005, and it stayed there. Don't believe the media that says that the drop in the participation rate is due to demographic shifts and the retirement of the baby boomers - those people out of the labor force are all young people.
Links to sources, Tyler, please!
Yes but today's rate and 1977 rates are totally different worlds, the number of women counted and the number of illegal aliens counted were both much lower.
Let's fish around in Fred2 a little.
OMG down:
Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate: Bachelor's Degree and Higher, 25 years and over
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNU01327662
Up a little since 1977 but down since 2000, 2008:
Labor Force Participation Rate: Black or African American
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNS11300006
Flattish and probably bogus:
Not in Labor Force: Want a Job Now
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NILFWJNN
Say what? Straight down since 1950?:
Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate: Men
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNU01300001
See how wonderful the USA is? Half the people don't even have to work!
Oh, the buzzin' of the bees and the cigarette trees,
And the soda water fountain
And the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
In the big rock candy mountain...