96,845,000: Record Number of Americans Not in the Labor Force The number of Americans counted as "not in the labor force," meaning they did not have a job and were not looking for one, increased by 1,763,000 to a record 96,845,000 in March, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday.
This "not in the labor force" number reached its previous record high of 96,297,000 in August 2018, during President Trump's tenure, driven largely by Baby Boom retirees. BLS notes that many of those who are not in the labor force are retired, going to school, or have family responsibilities that keep them out of the labor force.......
.........Going forward, widespread business closures are expected to produce millions more people who have no job and are not looking for one because there are fewer places to look, at least through April and maybe longer.
After breaking 25 records under President Donald Trump--most recently in December 2019--the number of employed Americans dropped sharply in March, to 155,772,000, BLS reported.
That's a drop of 2,987,000 from the near-record 158,759,000 Americans counted as working in February. People are considered employed if they did any work at all, even part-time or temporary, for pay or profit during the survey reference week – the week of March 12 in the case of today’s report.
At the same time, the number of unemployed Americans increased by 1,353,000 in March to 7,140,000. People are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, but actively looked for work in the prior four weeks, and are currently available for work......
https://www.cnsnews.com/article/national/susan-jones/96845000-record-number-americans-not-labor-force
