l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 For Every Person Added to Labor Force, 10 Added to Those Not in Labor Force
Daniel Halper
October 15, 2012 1:09 PM
A new chart from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee details
the fact that, since January 2009, for every person added to the labor force
, 10 have been added to those not in the labor force. Here's a chart showing
the dwindling labor force:
"For Every 1 Person Added To Labor Force Since January 2009," the chart
reads, "10 People Added To Those Not In Labor Force."
That is, in nearly the four years, since President Obama took office in
January 2009, only 827,000 people have been added to the labor force, while
during that same time period, 8,208,000 have been added to those not in the
labor force.
The chart relies on data available from the federal Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
"The numbers represented in the chart are a measure of growth from January
2009 through September 2012," the Republican side of the Senate Budget
Committee explains. "The data is sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
’ Current Population Survey, a sample of 60,000 households conducted by
personal and telephone interviews. Basic labor force data are gathered
monthly. The labor force consists of all people aged 16 and over either
employed or actively seeking work. It does not include discouraged workers,
people who have retired, or those on welfare or disability who are no longer
looking for work. The 'not in the labor force' group is defined as the
total civilian non-institutional population minus the labor force."
Since January 2009, the labor force has grown by 0.54 percent, or 827,
000 people (from 154,236,000 to 155,063,000). Those not in the labor force
grew by 10.2 percent during the same period (8,208,000 people), from 80,502,
000 to 88,710,000. In other words, for every one person added to the labor
force of the United States since January 2009, the size of the U.S.
population not in the labor force grew by 10 people.
And the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee concludes, "These
figures reveal several troubling trends: That the jobs market is not keeping
pace with U.S. population growth; that not enough younger Americans are
joining the labor force to account for retirement among an ageing population
; and that a large number of workers have become so discouraged that they
simply stopped looking for work and left the labor force entirely. These
factors pose serious fiscal challenges for the United States. A historically
low labor force participation rate—together with an ageing population and
a record number of people drawing federal welfare benefits—puts severe
strain on the federal budget in both the near and long term."
UPDATE: Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Budget
Committee, comments: “The essential point of this chart is not simply how
many people are employed or unemployed, but to illustrate that more and more
people are simply not part of the U.S. labor force. This confirms that we
are on the wrong track. It is unsustainable to have such a large and growing
number of people who are not part of the productive economy. This is not a
political argument, but a description of the underlying instability in our
economy that has so many Americans worried about the future. The question is
what can we do to reverse these trends and start moving in the right
direction.” |
|
