Here Are the Real Labor Force Dropouts

By Rick Newman | The Exchange

The dominant story about the job market is no longer the nation’s 11.3 million unemployed people or the painfully slow pace of hiring. It’s the growing portion of the working-age population that has dropped out of the labor force and isn’t even looking for a job.

The jobs report for August seemed upbeat on the surface, since the unemployment rate dropped by one-tenth of a point to 7.3%. But analysts have been quick to point out that the unemployment rate fell because the number of people looking for work -- part of the numerator in the equation used to determine the unemployment rate -- declined. That’s usually a sign of an ailing economy, not a recovering one.

Overall, the U.S. economy is being driven by a smaller portion of the population. The percentage of adults either working or looking for work peaked in the late 1990s, declined gradually until the recession began at the end of 2007, then began to fall more sharply, as this chart showing the labor-force participation rate chart reveals:



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Here are labor force participation rates for different age groups in 1990, 2000 and 2013:



The biggest drop-off has come among young workers. The recession and subsequent weak recovery have cut sharply into opportunities for entry-level workers, in virtually all industries. Some simply can’t find work. Others have chosen to go to college or graduate school instead of looking for a job.