The incredible shrinking labor force

If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.2 percent. That helps explain a seeming contradiction in the unemployment numbers: The rate keeps dropping even though job creation has been soft. In April, the U.S. economy added a mere 115,000 jobs, according to the ... Full Story »