What percent of population over age 16, is actually working or looking for work?


The Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps track of the "Labor Force Participation Rate", which answers that question.

If you have a job OR you are trying to get one, then you are in the Labor Force.

BTW, the "Unemployment Rate" isn't the percentage of the population that don't have jobs. It's the percentage of the Labor Force that don't have jobs.

So the "Unemployment Rate" can fall in two different ways: (1) Fewer people without jobs; or (2) More people without jobs, drop out and quit looking altogether.

Were you wondering how the Unemployment Rate managed to "fall" from 8.5% to 8.3%, even while the number of people without jobs ROSE by 849,000 people?

Easy! From Dec. 2011 to Jan. 2012, more people gave up looking altogether, and dropped out of the Labor Force.

Actually, MORE people lost jobs, not fewer. But so many of them gave up altogether, that little "Unemployment Rate" number went down, not up.

.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . US Labor Participation Force Rate, 2002 through Jan. 2012

(Source: U.S. Govt Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000 )

Notice that, right at the end from Dec. 2011 to Jan. 2012, more people dropped out of the Labor Force than at nearly any other time.

And the Obama administration is telling us that this is GOOD news... and that his policies are finally working!

(Actually, that last part is probably correct. His policies are "working", all right... and have been "working" since the day he took office, as the above graph shows!)