Earlier today, Conn Carroll noted that today’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent, but largely because 315,000 people gave up looking for work and thus are no longer counted. But it’s worth demonstrating just how far we are from a healthy job climate.
Right now, there are 140.6 million employed Americans. That compares to 142.2 million in January 2009, when President Obama was sworn into office and 146.6 million at the pre-recession employment peak of November 2007. This is shown in the chart below.
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Of course, this chart does not account for changes in population. Since July 2007, according to Census data, the U.S. population has grown from 301.2 million to 312.7 million — or over 11 million. Here’s a chart, courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the employment-to-population ratio since 1990.
The labor force participation rate — those working or looking for work — dropped to 64 percent in November. According to James Pethokoukis, “If the the labor force participation rate were back at its January 2009 level, the (headline unemployment rate) would be 11.0 percent” instead of 8.6 percent.
