Disasppearing Labor

Via Instapundit, we learn that the labor force is shrinking, the combined result of the economy, the job creation that's going on, and the Obama administration. A more complete explanation can be found at Investor's Business Daily, but this graph tells the story.

Under the Obama administration, the labor pool has shrunk by a million workers. These are folks who are so disenfranchized that they're no longer looking for work. They've dropped out of the economy.

In the 30 months since the recession officially ended, nearly 1 million people have dropped out of the labor force — they aren't working, and they aren't looking — according to data from Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the past two months, the labor force shrank by 170,000.

This is virtually unprecedented in past economic recoveries, at least since the BLS has kept detailed records. In the past nine recoveries, the labor force had climbed an average 3.5 million by this point, according to an IBD analysis of the BLS data.

This is the government's own data and it shows that there are less of us working than ever before. This isn't a recovery until those folks are back at work. This is our President's fault, purely and simply. Folks aren't hiring until the uncertainty is over and those folks who can't find jobs aren't looking. Some may have gone Gault, but I suspect that 99% of them have given up hope, or turned to crime. It's a damned shame.