XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, can.politics, alt.politics.liberalism
XPost: alt.politics.democrats, alt.politics.usa.republican

Big Problem: Millions of Americans Have Quit Looking For A Job

In a December interview with Fox News, Donald Trump criticized the relatively low unemployment rate as deceptive, saying, "take a look at the real jobs report, which are the millions of people that gave up looking for work, and they're not considered in that number that's less than 5 percent."

Trump is correct. The unemployment rate does not count people who have not looked for work...

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While the unemployment rate is currently near a new low, that statistic doesn't tell the full story and can mask a deterioration in the labor market.

The participation rate measures all active workers divided by the working-age population. More importantly, it reflects people's attachment to the job market - including their economic engagement and also, because a job is such an important part of a person's identity, their overall well-being.

When people who are unemployed grow too discouraged and stop looking for work, it causes the participation rate to go down. But as a result, the unemployment rate goes down as well because it doesn't include people who have given up. This makes the picture look better than it is.

From about the late 1980s until 2008, the participation rate fluctuated around 66% to 67%. But after the Great Recession, the rate dropped more 3 percentage points over the next seven years and has barely budged since. The latest jobs report shows it's at 62.8%.

The 3 percentage points decline in participation translates to over 6 million people no longer in the labor force.

Trends In Men And Women

What's Driving The Decline?

One possible reason for this is the decline in low-skilled jobs, a decline that was quite sharp during the worst periods of the Great Recession. Even with the improvement of labor market conditions since the depths of the recession, the participation rate has not recovered.

Women's labor force participation has also been declining, although this is a somewhat more recent phenomenon. It had been rising since at least World War II from around 30% to a peak of around 60% in 1990, when the United States had the sixth-highest labor force participation rate of women among the 22 most advanced economies in that year. But around the time of the recession, it began to drop, and by 2010 the U.S. fell to 17th place.

Possible reasons include the relative lack of parental leave and child-care policies compared with these other economies, as well as the greater opportunity for part-time work.

There are appropriate concerns about the cyclical headwinds facing the U.S. economy, and the May jobs report does little to offset those worries. But policymakers and all Americans should also be concerned about persistent longer-run trends, like the continuing low rate of labor force participation.

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Joe Biden Is A Racist

"Americans can't distinguish "between a South Korean and someone from
Beijing." - Joe Biden

Yup... they all look alike, Joe.

Old-Rich-White-Religious Freak, Joe Biden Bragged About His Ability to Work With Racists

Old-Rich-White-Religious Freak, Joe Biden Brags About a Segregationist Democrat Not Calling Him "Boy" Like He Did Others

Used Racist Term "Roaches" to Describe Black Kids Who Felt His Hairy Legs

Praised Democrat Segregationist Sen. John Stennis(D) as "Man of Character"

"Segregation Is Good for Black People" - Joe Biden

"(The) Democrat Party Needs More People Like Racist Democrat Governor George Wallace." - Joe Biden

Gave Speech About What's "Good for the Negro"

"... if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black..." - Joe Biden

"If my opponent wins, they're going to put y'all back in chains." - Joe Biden

Funny, since Democrats have been KEEPING Blacks "in chains" for 60 years, and PUT them there, in the first place. Lincoln and Frederick Douglas and H.R. Revels, Benjamin S. Turner, Josiah T. Walls, Joseph H. Rainey, Robert C. De Large, Jefferson H. Long, R. Brown Elliot were ALL Republicans

http://www.wordfoundations.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/08/First_Colored_Senator_and_Representatives.jpg

"Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle." - Joe Biden

Jungle: Slang term for a city or urban area.

"You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking." - Joe Biden

Only people from India can work at 7-11?

"Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids" - Joe Biden... as opposed to "White Kids"? That would imply all poor kids are Black.

"I do not buy the concept, popular in the '60s, which said, "We have suppressed the black man for 300 years." - Joe Biden

Seems that THAT'S exactly what Democrats have been saying, ever since they found out that they could buy their votes so easily with free shit.

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean." - Joe Biden

What... they're not SUPPOSED to be?

"We (Delawareans) were on the South's side in the Civil War." - Joe Biden

"I mean these Shylocks (Jews) who took advantage of, um, these women and men while overseas." - Joe Biden (Not "racist", per se, but still...)

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