"The civilian labor force shrank in April by 342,000 workers and remains below where it stood when the economic recovery started 34 months ago, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Had the labor force not declined, unemployment would have been 8.3% in April, instead of the 8.1% reported......
....On the jobs front, nonfarm payrolls rose by just 115,000 in April, less than expected and confirming that economic activity has cooled after getting a warm-weather boost. It was the third straight month of smaller job gains after January's 275,000.
That kept the unemployment rate above 8% for the 39th straight month.
And that rate would have been higher had the labor force not continued to shrink.
In April, the labor force was 365,000 smaller than it was in June 2009 — the month the economic recovery officially started. That's in stark contrast to every other post-World War II expansion, which saw the labor force climb by the millions at this point in their recoveries, even as unemployment rates were driven down.
Combined with the growing working-age population, this has pushed the labor force participation rate — those working or looking for a job compared with the working-age population — down to 63.6% in April from 65.7% in mid-2009, and the lowest since 1981.
Economists note that the shrinking labor force has masked the true size of the unemployment problem, since people who quit looking for a job are no longer counted as unemployed.
In fact, had the labor force participation rate stayed where it was in June 2009, the jobless rate would be around 11%...."
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