Not Working: U.S. Labor Force Participation Lowest in 36 Years

It’s yet another sad, sorry statistic in the history of the slowly sinking ship that is the American economy.

The latest Senate Budget Committee analysis shows that over half a million less people have jobs now than before President Obama took office, even though there are 8 million more people in the working-age population. Total employment has declined from 146.3 million to 145.7 million.

Worse, the labor force participation rate hit a record low last month, while the number of Americans who could work but don’t work between the ages of 25 and 29 hit a record high — nearly 4.3 million.

That last number has increased 13.6% since Obama took office.

This graph for employment-population ratio says it all:

These figures do not count people who are incarcerated or in mental health facilities, or those who are on active duty in the military.

“This statistic highlights an alarming trend that has embodied the president’s economic policies: more and more people are leaving the workforce entirely,” according to the analysis, which was released by Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.). “There are 58 million working-age people who are not working, and the labor force participation rate stands at 62.8 percent, the lowest level in 36 years.” (source)

People are just continually falling out of the workforce — and staying out.

A few weeks back, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics released another sorry report on the employment characteristics of American families in 2013, and found that in 20% of them, everyone was unemployed.

Everyone.

How is that even…possible?

As Michael Snyder of The American Dream blog wrote,

One-fifth of the families in the entire country do not have a single member with a job.  That is absolutely astonishing.  How can a family survive if nobody is making any money?  Well, the answer to that question is actually quite easy.  There is a reason why government dependence has reached epidemic levels in the United States.  Without enough jobs, tens of millions of additional Americans have been forced to reach out to the government for help.  At this point, if you can believe it, the number of Americans getting money or benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million. [His emphasis added, not mine]

The middle class is dwindling more and more day-by-day.

The most pressing question at this point isn’t how we got here anymore. It’s pretty obvious what’s happening.

The most pressing question is what will become of this nation if this trend continues?