"That has been the case for a long time... the measure of unemployment was changed decades ago to make things look better. Obama didn't do it. But that's not what matters. " - SilentZ
On this we agree. On the issue of Labor Participation Rate, your statements that it includes people who are children and retired people is simply not true. You have your facts wrong. The Labor Force Participation Rate is calculated using the BLS' definition of the Labor Force, which I'll quote here from their website. So my original statement is true. When we have a Labor Force that is capable of working, and yet, 37% of them are unemployed, then the other 63% have to figure out how to pay for all that. And as you point out, that 63% of the Labor Force are also engaged in paying for their kids and their elderly retired parents, most of whom did not save enough to retire on, and so, are fully dependent on social security and other forms of welfare. So in a very real sense, you have 50% of the population paying for the other half. If this trend continues towards more people not working, then you need to think about whether we are marching towards catastrophe or not. Real compassion is shouting very loudly to everyone who will listen that today's policies are not working and that we'd better start figuring out real fast how to get more able bodied people working and off welfare, otherwise, we are going to achieve 3rd World Status in record time and we'll all be wishing we were more responsible with this nation's wealth.
The civilian labor force consists of employed and unemployed people actively seeking work, but does not include any Armed Forces personnel. Historical data for this series are from the Current Population Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPS, a monthly survey of households, is conducted by the Census Bureau for the BLS. The survey provides statistics on the employment and labor force status of the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years and older and is collected from a probability sample of approximately 60,000 households.
bls.gov
|
