There were 988,000 discouraged workers in the United States in July, an increase of 136,000 from July 2012, according to data released today the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
“Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them,” the BLS explains.
While the overall unemployment rate declined to the lowest rate since December 2008 at 7.4 percent, those not in the labor force remains near an all-time high at 89,957,000. The previous high was 89,967,000 in March of this year.
The number of Americans who dropped out of the labor force was 240,000 in July – 78,000 more than the162,000 jobs added in the month.
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