720k Americans Leave Labor Force in October
9th November 2013
On Friday, the Labor Department reported that 720,000 Americans left the labor force. This exodus pushed the labor force participation rate down to 62.8%, the lowest level since 1978. One out of three adults is neither working nor actively looking for work.
Some observers attribute the sharp drop to the shutdown and the furloughed federal workers. Even if that were the case, and it is unclear why these workers would be counted as not in the labor force, the number of Americans exiting is still significant. The total number of adults not in the labor force in October rose 932,000 to almost 92 million.
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