Labor

Labor Force Participation Is Lower Than It Has Been In 30 Years -- Why It Matters And Why It Doesn't

Brian Beutler | May 4, 2012, 1:28PM

Among the new employment figures the Labor Department released Friday morning is an obscure one that's ripe for politicking: the labor force participation rate. It measures the percentage of the population age 16 and above who are actually working. The labor force participation rate fell last month to 63.6 percent, its lowest level since 1981.

In the midst of an economic recovery -- albeit a slow one -- why would the labor participation rate continue to be hover near four-decade lows?

If you take a long view of the figures, something becomes abundantly clear: there's a lot more behind the country's slumping labor force participation rate than today's weak economy. The real reasons behind the fluctuations in the rate over the past several decades are fascinating, and they raise some of the biggest questions in the field of labor economics.

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Barack Obama

Obama Pledges to Protect Collective Bargaining While Creating Jobs

Susan Crabtree | September 5, 2011, 2:19AM

President Obama addresses a Labor Day rally in Detroit, MI, September 5, 2011.

President Obama previewed his proposals for job creation and reviving the economy to thousands of supportive union members in Detroit on Labor Day.

The speech at a rally sponsored by the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO came just days before Obama's Thursday evening address before a joint session of Congress where he plans to oultine specific proposals to spur job creation and resuscitate the economy.

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Barack Obama

Obama on Economy: 'We Are Going To Get Through This'

Susan Crabtree | August 5, 2011, 11:26AM

One day after a precipitous slide in the financial markets spurred new speculation about a double-dip recession, President Obama sought to reassure Americans that the country is slowly recovering from its economic crisis with a light at the end of a very long tunnel.

The President pointed to the slightly better than expected jobs numbers the Labor Department announced early Friday as proof of the nation's steady but fragile economic recovery. The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 9.1 percent as July nonfarm payrolls grew by 117,000 jobs - slightly beating expectations.

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Boeing

After Appeal From Nikki Haley, Newt Gingrich Jumps Into SC Boeing/Labor Fight

Benjy Sarlin | May 11, 2011, 9:58AM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

Newt Gingrich became the latest prominent Republican to take on the National Labor Relations Board over its suit against Boeing, writing an open letter in Human Events on the issue one day after South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) called on President Obama and the Republican presidential field to get involved.

"It is clear that President Obama is packing the NLRB board with left wing ideologues as a payoff to his union boss allies, so that the fix is in with regard to this case and others like it," Gingrich wrote. "The move is consistent with an ongoing pattern in the Obama administration, in which they use the apparatus of big government to reward their allies and punish their opponents."

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Unemployment

Unemployment Rate Remains Stuck At 9.6% As Benefits Set To Expire

Megan Carpentier | November 5, 2010, 10:04AM

An unemployed man.

The Labor Department released unemployment statistics this morning for the month of October, eliciting cheers from some quarters over the fact that private sector payrolls added 150,000 jobs and beat market expectations. But the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.6 percent -- and a closer look at the numbers indicate that key sectors impacted by the economic downturn haven't seen the improvement many had hoped for.

And, in a sign that unemployed and semi-employed Americans are getting discouraged again, the labor force participation rate edged down in October, as did the number of Americans employed part-time for economic reasons. The number of people only marginally attached to the labor market -- those who have looked for work in the past year but not in the past month -- increased by 200,000. Furthermore, the number of long-term unemployed -- those who have spent more than 27 weeks without a job -- increased from 6.12 million to 6.2 million over the past month.

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