America: The 86 Million Invisible Unemployed !

Last year, 86 million Americans were not counted in the labor force because they didn’t keep up a regular job search. Most of them were either under age 25 or over age 65. Graphic: money.cnn.com

• The Bureau of Lying ahem Labor Statistics claimed on Friday that unemployment rate has dropped to 8.1%! Yeah right! Pigs can fly!
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  The 86 million invisible unemployed ! 
  By Annalyn Censky@CNNMoney 
  There are far more jobless people in the United States than you might think. While it’s true that the unemployment rate is falling, that doesn’t include the millions of nonworking adults who aren’t even looking for a job anymore. And hiring isn’t strong enough to keep up with population growth.
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  As a result, the labor force is now at its smallest size since the 1980s when compared to the broader working age population. “We’ve been getting some job growth and it’s been significant, but it hasn’t yet been strong enough that you start to get people re-engaging in the labor market,” said Keith Hall, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center and former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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  Job market dropouts
  A person is counted as part of the labor force if they have a job or have looked for one in the last four weeks. As of April, only 63.6% of Americans over the age of 16 fell into that category, according to the Labor Department. That’s the lowest labor force participation rate since 1981. It’s a worrisome sign for the economy and partly explains why the unemployment rate has been falling recently. Only people looking for work are considered officially unemployed.
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  Jason Everett, for example, wouldn’t be counted. Out of work for nearly three years now, Everett has given up his job search altogether. Instead, the unemployed plumber and Air Force veteran takes a few community college courses and looks after his two children while his wife is the primary breadwinner. “I’m not even totally convinced the college degree is really going to help at this point, but I figure at least I’ll be doing something,” he said.
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  The unofficially unemployed
  Last year there were 86 million people who didn’t have a job and weren’t consistently looking for one, according to Labor Department data. Older people, ages 65 and over, account for more than a third. Young people between 16 and 24 make up another fifth. More than half don’t have a college degree and more than two thirds are white.
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  Many of the teens and 20-somethings may be enrolled in either high school or college full-time. And many of the over 65 crowd are probably retired. But what about the other 36 million folks who fall in between?
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  read more!

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