(CNSNews.com) - A record 94,708,000 Americans were not in the labor force in May -- 664,000 more than in April -- and the labor force participation rate dropped two-tenths of a point to 62.6 percent, near its 38-year low, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday.
When President Obama took office in January 2009, 80,529,000 Americans were not participating in the labor force; since then, 14,179,000 Americans have left the workforce -- some of them retiring and some just quitting because they can't find work.
"By almost every economic measure, America is better off than when I came here at the beginning of my presidency," President Obama told the people of Elkhart, Indiana three days ago. "We cut unemployment in half, years before a lot of economists thought we would."
The unemployment rate in May dropped to 4.7 percent, BLS reported, less than half of its Obama-era high of 10 percent in October 2009.
But the labor force participation rate has deteriorated over Obama's two terms.
When Obama took office in January 2009, shortly before the recession ended, the labor force participation rate was 65.7 percent. The following month, it reached an Obama-era high of 65.8 percent, and then it began its seven-year downward spiral, hitting 62.4 percent in September 2015, its lowest point since 1977.
The 62.6 percent participation rate in May 2015 compares with 62.8 in April and 63.0 in March. (BLS noted that the rate has declined by 0.4 percentage point over the past two months, offsetting gains in the first quarter.)
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But Barry has reduced the unemployment rate by more than 50%. He likes to point that out to all those who haven't been able to find a job for so long.
ReplyDeleteand these numbers are NOT taken into consideration when the unemployment rate is tallied. our government is so deceptive and corrupt.
ReplyDeleteObama went to Indiana and boasted about the economy growing but the owner of the company he was at immediately followed in the news story by saying it wasn't the poor economy that saw growth in his business, but dedicated workers and a conservative governor making Indiana a friendly place to do business. Not the liberals' policies, as they keep claiming.
ReplyDeleteAll those people who have time on their hands to hop on buses en masse and go a'rioting and "protesting" at the drop of the hat...all the people on welfare...all the Freddie Grays, who never worked a day in their lives...all the BLM idiots who have all the time in the world to rudely disrupt other people's events and gatherings...the bums behind the Giant on Rt. 13...the "youths" who are finally pushed through high school and out onto the streets at 19 or 20, indolent and too lazy to look for a real job...
ReplyDeleteAre they counted as part of the "labor force"?
I doubt it. The real percentage of joblessness is probably even higher.
Same trend that was already predicted back during the 80's people. Please take a hard look at the faxts BEFORE you try to come to a conclusion
ReplyDelete