It’s about 18-20% the real rate. I mean, this town is money grabbers, go ahead, bite the big apple… don’t mind the maggots… uh huh…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_force
According to wiki it does include retired and stay at home moms, other sites said these were excluded. The bls site wasn’t helpfull (see below). It’s pretty annoying because if it does include people in retirement then the lowering rate is perfectly understandable, if not then, yes, it’s a bad trend.
Labor force (Current Population Survey)
- The labor force includes all persons classified as employed or unemployed in accordance with the definitions contained in this glossary.
As I understand it, Labor Force is indeed Employed plus Unemployed (which requires not having a job and looking for work). Labor Force participation is the labor force divided by the working age population. The working age population consists of people 16-65 who are not disabled.