The headline says quite a bit but the comparisons between the so-called "recovery" under the Obama regime and the last nine recoveries, shows an astounding incompetence on the part of Barack Obama and his administration as well as complete dishonesty when Obama publicly talks about jobs being created or saved.The numbers do not lie. Barack Obama does.
Via Investors Business Daily:
In the 30 months since the recession officially ended, nearly 1 million people have dropped out of the labor force — they aren't working, and they aren't looking — according to data from Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the past two months, the labor force shrank by 170,000.
This is virtually unprecedented in past economic recoveries, at least since the BLS has kept detailed records. In the past nine recoveries, the labor force had climbed an average 3.5 million by this point, according to an IBD analysis of the BLS data.
"Given weak job prospects, many would-be workers dropped out of (or never entered) the labor force," noted Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute in her analysis of the BLS jobs report issued last Friday. "That reduces the measured unemployment rate but does not represent real improvement."
According to the BLS, the "labor force participation rate" — the ratio of the number of people either working or looking for work compared with the entire working-age population — is now 64%, down from 65.7% when the recession ended in June 2009. That's the lowest level since women began entering the workforce in far greater numbers several decades ago.
If you adjust for this drop, the unemployment rate would be close to 11%, instead of the official 8.5%.
This issue was discussed in December when unemployment dropped from 9 percent to 8.6 percent and Obama and Democrats touted it as evidence that the economy was recovering, yet experts explained that the drop in unemployment did not come from more people finding jobs but rather because 315,000 Americans left the workforce.
If they leave the workforce, need, want and are able to work but are no longer looking for work for whatever reason, they are not counted in the official unemployment numbers.
The next time a Democrat, a liberal or Barack Obama says the economy is recovering, perhaps someone should ask them point blank, where are the vanished 1 Million American workers.
.