91.5 MILLION AMERICANS NOT INCLUDED IN LABOR FORCE
Record high 91.5 million people not included in labor force
A record high 91,541,000 Americans did not participate in the labor force this October.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 932,000 people dropped out of the labor force last month, from at total of 90,609,000 in September to 91,541,000 in October.
The BLS defines a person “[n]ot in the labor force” as age 16 and older who are not employed and not considered to be unemployed as they have not looked for work in the four weeks prior to the survey.
The labor force participation rate — or all employed and unemployed people — in accordance with the decline, also hit a record low at 62.8 percent.
When President Obama took office in January 2009, the labor force participation rate was 65.7 percent.
From January 2009 to October 2013, more than 11 million people have dropped out of the labor force — from 80,507,000 to October’s 91,541,000.
The economic blog Zero Hedge notes that at the current rate, the number of people not participating in the labor force could exceed those working in about four years.
