More than ninety four million Americans eligible to work are not in the U.S. labor force, meaning that they don’t have a job and aren’t looking for one. Many Americans view this statistic as an indication of national economic decline.
Moreover, as pointed out by writer Josh Zumbrun, the number of Americans outside the labor force is almost certain to rise dramatically over coming decades as America’s population becomes both larger and older. Earlier this month, the Labor Department spotlighted some of its labor force projections through twenty sixty.
By twenty twenty, the number of Americans eligible to work but outside of the labor force will expand to more than one hundred and one million. Many of these people will still be in school, or they will be stay at home parents, but many will be too discouraged to even look for work.
By the year twenty thirty, the number of people outside of the labor force is expected to expand to one hundred and fifteen million – that would represent an increase of more than twenty million in in just the next fourteen years. Much of this will be due to retirement, however, and isn’t necessarily cause for serious concern.
