Not Working

Oh, that ain't workin'
That's the way you do it
Get your money for nothing
Get your chicks for free
--Dire Straits

Zero Hedge continues to be all over the decline in the labor force participation rate. The labor force participation rate is the fraction of working age persons who are employed or looking for work.

Historically, those people not counted in the labor force participation rate have been mainly students, homemakers, and early retirees.

All else equal, it is desireable for the labor force participation rate to be as high as possible. More workers mean more production. More production means more economic resources. More economic resources mean higher standard of living.

Conversely, less people working means that those who do work must work harder in order to support both themselves and non-workers--unless those non-workers amassed a hoard of resources to live from in advance of exiting the workforce (unlikely).

In the US, the labor force production rate continues to decline. And while headline job numbers deceptively improve, we are printing generational lows in workforce participation:

Conveniently, less people in the work force make headline job numbers look better. Not only are people leaving the workforce no longer counted as unemployed by current methods, but they also provide less near term competition for those looking for work:

Currently, more about 92 million working age Americans are not working:

Of the 'traditional' non-working groups noted above, it seems that only more early retirees could explain some of secular trend currently in motion.

The other obvious contributing group, one that media and officials are reluctant to mention, is the growing number of people who are on the dole.