More on NiLF & the Unemployment Rate

Monday, June 04, 2007 | 06:07 AM

We mentioned Labor Force Participation Rate over the weekend.  It is worth exploring a bit further.

Labor_force_particpation_rate

One of the lesser noted aspects of the NFP report Friday was the drop in the Labor Participation Rates. It is the percentage of the total population that is either working or potentially working. In the US, it is about ~170 million people, and excludes children, retirees, non-employed (work at home moms, etc.).     That Labor Pool measure peaked in 2000 at just under 67.4%. Following the market crash and recession, it subsequently fell about 1.5% to about 65.8%. This accounted in no small part for the falling Unemployment rate from 2001 - 05.

Now, a 1.5% or so drop doesn't sound like a lot, but remember there are 143 million workers in the US. That drop equals about 3 million people. These are folks who are willing to take a full time job, have been unable to find work, and have exhausted their unemploment benefits.

The Labor pool drop appeared to have bottomed and reversed it self late 2005 (see chart above). The 5 year downtrend channel was broken, and  a new uptrend -- higher highs and higher lows -- was beginning.

Until recently.   

Augmented It has since started heading lower again. They do not count in the "official" Unemployment Rate statistics. However, BLS actually does measure these folks in their "augmented unemployment rate" -- the jobless people who aren't counted among the officially unemployed. That measure is 7.4%.

There is a good definition of this here. The longer term chart below parallels the unemployment rate -- but from higher levels.

Some people have asked if this 7.4% level is a good or a bad thing. That qualitiative description is less relevant to me than the quantitative cobnclusion that the 4.5% Unemployment Rate is very misleading.

David Altig at Macroblog thinks it is mostly due to secular changes, and I do not disagree. But for policy makers -- such as the Federal Reserve -- the belief that the labor market is very tight with no slack is clearly belied by the data.

The significance:  It may have an impact as to whether they have the room to cut rates or not.

Monday, June 04, 2007 | 06:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments

I guess the tile "Civilian Labor Force" means private business employment and discludes government employees.

I wonder in Econ301 how the government worker / taxpayer supported worker gets weighted with mining / manufacturing / service industries?

My point is the balance of it all.
Mining digs up 100Million year old inventory, so thats new currency.
Manufacturing blends mined products, so thats new currency.
Services blends the above and becomes the middle man, and our consumerism supports this need of ours.

That leaves government employees and the money industry call it Capitals and WallStreet. These services extract without creating. Both masses are needed in our current system.

My point is the balance in truth presentation / representation.

A revolving dollar is a working dollar in any of the major classifications. My problem is globalism, because I'm not moving anywhere, except to dust.

Posted by: Greg0658 | Jun 4, 2007 8:26:32 AM

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