105 million Americans are not working: more than during COVID-19 or the Great Recession
The United States recorded 105.8 million people out of the labor force in June, the highest level above COVID-19 and the Great Recession of 2008
Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis released its report on the number of people “not in the labor force” (NILF) in the United States, which reached 105.8 million adults who did not work in June. This is a new all-time high, surpassing anything recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic or the Great Recession of 2008.
The record made by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for its “Not in Labor Force” report includes all Americans over the age of 16 who are not currently working, including retirees, students, homemakers and those who stopped looking for work.
"We have a big problem... with the flight of prime-age men from work. And what has maintained the overall participation of the prime-age workforce has been the strong involvement of women, not men," Nicholas Eberstadt, who holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, told The Post.
The record number of people not working in the United States occurred in a month (June) in which there was a massive increase of 832,000 workers leaving the labor force. Not even during the most worrying peaks of the pandemic or the Great Recession did so many people stop receiving a salary.
Also alarming is the number of people who have left their jobs, not as part of a wave of layoffs, or who are not even looking for one. This figure was 5.3 million adults of productive age, which represents 5% of unemployed workers.
More than 23.3 million Americans, nearly 22% of the U.S. population without health or unemployment insurance, receive sickness, disability benefits or some other type of long-term government assistance.
It should be remembered that the NILF report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Luis includes Americans over 16 years of age. The curious thing is that the number of those who receive some financial aid considerably exceeds the percentage of young people of that age, between 16% and 18%, who are studying full-time: just over 19 million Americans.
Retirees, who are also considered in the report, represent 50% of the total non-working population, the largest segment, without a doubt. About 45% of NILFs are retirees who took standard retirement at age 65 or older. Between 3% and 5% retired early.
In another data that reinforces the number of people who have not joined the workforce, only 59% of the population participates in the labor market today, the lowest level since September 2021, when the population was emerging from the pandemic. Before that, the share of Americans in the labor market had only fallen to that low level after the Great Recession.