Discouraged Workers Economists Puzzle Over Labor Force Dropouts

Discouraged Workers

Economists Puzzle Over Labor Force Dropouts

By Victoria Stilwell | Published May 15, 2014

Since the depths of the recession, more Americans are working and a steadily shrinking number are officially unemployed. That’s good! But there’s another category: People who are neither working nor unemployed. They’re just not looking for a job. That number has stayed stubbornly high. Not so good. Or is it? Economists are divided. It depends on why people aren’t working. If a lot of them have given up looking for a job because they don’t think they can get a job, that can be a sign that times are tougher than the other statistics suggest. If, on the other hand, more people are choosing to retire or staying in school longer, the outlook may be rosier.http://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/discouraged-workers/