Those not in the labor force grew by 608,000 last month to 95 million: We’ve added more than 16 million people to this shadow army of non-workers over the last decade.

Another month and the army of “not in the labor force” Americans continues to grow in record fashion.  So of course, the employment rate looks fantastic when you yank out 95 million people from your analysis.  Last month a stunning 608,000 people were added to the not in the labor force category.  Sure, some of this is accounted from old Americans hitting retirement age but definitely not to this outsized level.  The labor force figures don’t really shed a great light on the employment situation in the United States.  For example, you also have millions of young Americans working in low paying jobs but are burdened by extremely high student debt.  Is it a problem that we added 608,000 people to the not in the labor force category?

Not in the labor force continues to boom

Those not in the labor force highlights a hidden part of America.  You have millions of Americans that are living in the deep shadows of the American Dream.  The idea of retiring and living large is mostly a marketing ploy to get you to stuff your money into inflated funds and juiced up stocks so you can part with your hard earned money.  Only half of Americans actually own any kind of stocks and for the most part, the 401k has been a massive transfer of wealth from Americans to Wall Street.

Yet here we are with a growing army of Americans living in the shadows:

Source:  BLS

This is nuts.  Just break down the numbers above:

-We’ve added 1.6 million people per year to the not in labor force category over the last 10 years

-Since 2007, those not in the labor force has grown by 16 million

We are now at nearly 95 million Americans not in the labor force.  This is difficult to comprehend and the mainstream press still fails to acknowledge this group in any serious discussion.  This number is roughly one out of three Americans!  This is an important topic to discuss.  These are largely older Americans that will need to rely on Social Security and their healthcare costs are going to soar.  We are also asking a larger younger population to support this group while their wages are depressed.

The problem with having this number so high is the draw upon the system.  We need to have money coming in and out.  With so many older Americans there are now major strains on the system.  We are seeing it with Medicare and Social Security.  We continue to overspend on healthcare per person yet the costs continue to soar while well being doesn’t seem to be going up all that much.

You wonder why these numbers continue to go up and the headline unemployment rate would indicate that all is well.  It would seem that the economy is booming on all fronts including the stock market, real estate, and employment.  Yet somehow, one out of three Americans are now part of the 95 million that are not in the labor force.  There are two Americas and people likely feel that there are also two economies running parallel to each other.

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