Record Number of Americans Out of Workforce

Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

The Labor Department reported Friday that a record number of Americans are out of the workforce.

The August labor report showed 94,031,000 Americans were not in the labor force, down 261,000 from July.   The labor participation rate of 62.6 percent is holding at a 38-year low for the third straight month.

It’s the first time that the total number of Americans out of the workforce topped 94 million.

The report also showed that a record number of women were out of the workforce.  56,253,000 women were neither employed or looked for employment in the month of August, up 44,000 from July.  The labor force participation rate for women was at 56.7 percent.

The report sent the stock markets into a tumble to wrap up the week.  All three of the major stock indexes were down with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down over 200 points.  Oil markets were down as well following the report.

The jobs report said that 173,000 jobs were added during the month, much lower than analyst expectations.  At least one analyst told CNN the number would likely stop the Federal Reserve from raising a key interest rate as widely believed will happen at their September meetings.

“You can’t hike on a 173,000 number,” says Phil Orlando, an economist at Federated Investors. “The Fed has to think long and hard about pushing this thing out to December.”

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