Record 95.1 million Americans not in the labor force. The challenge of having an army of non-working adults.

The year definitely ended with a bang and the number of Americans not in the labor force is now at a record high as well. 95.1 million Americans are now floating in the ‘not in the labor force’ category that finally got some mainstream attention in 2016. This is a big deal because you have an enormous proportion of your adult population off the charts. This convenient math has also allowed the unemployment rate to look lower than it probably should be. After all, if you are simply dismissing millions from your overall calculation then things can look better. We end the year with an enormous number of adults that have fallen off the labor force bandwagon and in many cases, you have old adults who wish to retire but realize their new retirement plan is working until they die.
The non-working army
In the last three months of the year the not in the labor force figures jumped by a whopping 841,000. This figure dwarfs any job gains that have been made over the period. You need to understand that this is significant because even if the figures are booming by older Americans, this simply means liabilities are going to be surging across the board.

This post was published at MyBudget360 on January 7, 2017.