800,000 Leave Workforce
Headline numbers aren’t the story.
The Department of Labor released jobs numbers for April and, as usual, the headline number is being touted as great news. The economy added 288,000 jobs, lowering the unemployment rate nearly half a percentage point to 6.3%. This is certainly an improvement, but – how many times have we added that disclaimer? – when we dig deeper, the news isn’t quite as rosy. Another 806,000 workers left the labor force, lowering the participation rate to 62.8% – a 36-year low. In other words, 92,594,000 Americans are now out of the work force. Of those, 55,116,000 are women with a participation rate of 56.9%. These rates had actually improved slightly in recent months. So much for that. Bottom line: Americans continue to be stifled in Obama’s economy.
- Tags:
- unemployment
- jobs
- jobs report