The 5.9 percent unemployment rate comes from the Household Survey that Labor hires Census to conduct. There are big concerns about the truthfulness of the jobless rate, especially since this is the last report before the November congressional elections.
For instance, in September the rate fell to 5.9 percent mainly because 315,000 more people told Census they stopped looking for a job.
Not quite. While the number of those Not in the Labor Force increased by 315,000, the Labor Force decreased by only 97,000
So it's not the 315,000 more people said they STOPPED looking, but rather 315,000 more said the DID NOT look. Not the same thing.
In fact, about a third of the recent decline in the unemployment rate can be attributed to a decline in the so-called Labor Participation Rate, which is now at a 36-year low. Ninety-six million Americans no longer consider themselves in the labor force.
92.6 million, not 96, and it's not "no longer" as many of them were never in the labor force to begin with.
The population used is age 16 and older not in the military, prison, or an institution. So a 15 year old who does not have a part time job turns 16...1 more person Not in the Labor Force.
Some think there is a logical explanation for this: baby boomers who are leaving the workforce because they simply don’t want to work anymore. But the data doesn’t bear that out.
There were 230,000 more workers aged 50 or older in the Household Survey released Friday. So how did the workforce decline by 315,000 people, if aging baby boomers were increasingly looking for jobs?
A good way to look at it is
Labor force status flows by sex, current month
Looking at the Seasonally Adjusted data, we see that 4,164,000 people left employment in late August and did not start looking for work in early September. Some are retired, some don't want another job, some just haven't started looking yet.
2,193,000 looked for work in late July/early August, but not in late August/early September.
And 301,000 people entered the population (by turning 16, discharge from the military, immigrating to the U.S., or being released from prison or an institution.
So that's 6,659,000 who became Not in the Labor Force
At the same time, of those who were Not in the Labor Force in August...3,814,000 found jobs by September and another 2,337,000 had started looking. And 193,000 left the population: Death, leaving the country, joining the military, going to jail, getting committed. That's 6,344,000 out of not in the labor force.
6,659,000-6,344,000 = 315,000
It’s either a miracle or someone’s pulling our leg
Or you don't understand the data.