This is almost double what the number of unemployed were in 2008. The sad reality is that there are about 6 million more people unemployed today than there were four years ago.
There are also just short of 89 million working-age Americans not currently in the labor force. These include students, stay-at-home parents, early retirees and those too discouraged to look for work. They do not get counted in the workforce numbers that are used to calculate the unemployment number. To show you how bad it is, the maximum reading on the chart prepared by the St. Louis Federal Reserve only goes to 88 million.
In the last four years, the numbers of Americans that are not in the workforce has increased by 9 million! The number is up almost 6 million in the last two years.
Here are the actual seasonally adjusted numbers for April, 2011 and April, 2012 of those not working. The number of those not working has actually increased by almost 2.7 million Americans while the unemployment situation is supposed to be improving. Go figure.
April, 2011 85,726,000
April, 2012 88,419,000
To put this in perspective, about as many Americans have left the workforce since 2008 as we saw during the entire decades of the 1980's and 1990's combined according to this article.
When you put the all the numbers together, we now have over 100 million working-age Americans who are not working. By contrast, there are about 141 million people working-75 million men and 66 million women.
This means that the labor participation rate (the number that are working compared to the assumed civilian labor force of people 16 years of age and over) has now dropped to 63.6. This is the lowest percentage of people working since 1981.
However, in 1981, there were far fewer women in the workforce. The labor force participation rate was at least five points lower then as more women did not work outside the home.
The labor force participation for men was the lowest ever recorded at 69.7 in April, 2012. In 1981 it was 77.0.
I have written before that I am more concerned about the percentage of those employed than the percentage that are unemployed. After all, there are bills to be paid in this country. People need shelter, food, energy, medical care and other necessities. The lower the percentage of those working, the greater the burden those working carry for everyone else. It is a simple comparison of how many are in the wagon versus how many are pulling the wagon.
I think the answer to how all of this will play out in the 2012 elections is yet to be determined. Under any historical perspective, we should be looking at a monumental repudiation of the status quo. President Obama should not stand a chance of being re-elected when 100 million working-age Americans are not working.
However, these are not normal times. In past years, a much higher percentage of these people would not be getting a ride in the wagon. They would be looking for change and opportunity. They would not be as dependent on the government. That is why what should be a landslide election right now looks like it could go either way.
Look no further than the numbers below to see what I mean as to the numbers receiving various federal and state benefits.
Social Security beneficiaries 44.7 million
Social Security disability 10.6 million
Unemployment benefits 6.6 million
Food Stamps 45.8 million
Federal civilian government employees 2.1 million
By the way, total uniformed military personnel is only around 700,000.
It used to be that people voted their pocketbooks. I don't think that has changed. However, where is the pocketbook these days?
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